Has it been a week already?!

Time flies when you're having fun!  At least this is how the saying goes...  Josh and I wouldn't really consider our home-away-from-home fun, but being parents is certainly fun!  Today marks Keagan's one-week birthday!  It is so hard to believe that a week ago my baby boy was born...and that he really has 3 weeks to go until he reaches full term.

We have had so many improvements over the last several days; so many in fact that I have little time to get on the computer!  Where do I begin?!  Well, first, Keagan moved from an incubator to a real crib!  We are thrilled with this b/c we can lean over the railing and give him lots of kisses!  We can also pick him up and hold him anytime we want...and we even get to participate in bathtime (YES! He was finally bathed for the first time last night!), diapering, clothing, etc.  It is nice to get our hands on this baby and get used to his little body.  We do have a few lines/tubes hindering us, but these become less and less with each day.  In fact, he now is breathing room air and maintaining his blood-oxygen saturation and he is no longer receiving IV antibiotics!  He now only has pads on his chest to monitor his heart rate and an O2-sat monitor on his foot.  He still has the NG-tube for feedings, but today he only had to have one tube feed because he is finally nursing!!!!  Both of us are still lacking coordination but it gets better with each feeding and I am beyond thrilled with this.  His doctor says that the only thing standing in the way of us going home is him nursing 100% of the time.  I am working on this whole-heartedly and will probably spend the night up here tomorrow night to hopefully eliminate the NG-tube (tonight we had to go to a hotel, which hinders the breastfeeding process a little).  He is still quite orange (we lovingly call him Oompa Loompa) but his billi levels have not been high enough to warrant a light or billi blanket.  Hopefully his color will even out soon, but we love him even if he is purple!  The best news of all is that Keagan's doctor is hopeful we will go home by the end of the week!  That would be so wonderful!  Anyways, here are some pics of his progress:

Keagan with Poppy (Josh's dad)

Keagan with Grammy (Josh's mom)

Keagan with Grandma (my mom)

Our new family!

The first night Keagan began showing huge improvements (when he moved to his crib) Josh and I decided to "escape" from the hospital for dinner.  When we came back to love on Keagan, I unswaddled him to find a ring safety-pinned to his outfit.  I was so shocked and surprised!  He had gotten me the match to my wedding band to commemorate our child's birth!  It was the sweetest, most remarkable surprise.  He has been wonderful during this tough time, taking care of me and Keagan, washing breast pump accessories, running for food, and continuing to keep a positive and loving attitude towards his new family.  I couldn't ask for more in a husband and father to my child.  I love you, Josh. 

I just want to reiterate how much we appreciate your prayers throughout this difficult time in our lives.  We understand the power of prayer and have seen it play out strongly in the last week.  I do have one other request:  please pray for a baby named Zack.  He was Keagan's "roommate" here in the NICU.  Keagan has since been upgraded to a different room with less need for constant attention, however Zack continues to need attention.  He was born at 37 weeks and was fine at first.  Zack's dad says that he stopped breathing about 4 hours after birth because his lungs were immature (similar to Keagan's situation).  However, poor Zack has not made much progress and is on a ventilator to breathe and is sedated.  It is very difficult to see this and we realize how very fortunate we are in our situation with the improvements we have made.  There are lots of babies here that need prayers, but we have gotten to know Zack and his family a bit and ask you lift him up in prayer.  He definitely needs it.   

June 26 Update!

As promised, here is an update on our precious son:  Today was another great day!  Daddy got to hold him skin-to-skin (hair) contact and Keagan LOVED it!  I also was able to hold him for a good amount of time.  He is becoming more lively and opening his eyes more.  He is also lifting his head off our chests when he is laying down, it is awesome to see our premie baby become stronger!!  From the medical perspective, Keagan's CPAP mask was removed (!!) and he now has only a nasal cannula!  We are thrilled with this b/c we can see our precious boy's face!  And, boy, does he have a beautiful face!  His feedings were increased a little today, although he still has the feeding tube.  As of tonight, the tube was moved from his mouth to his nose so he can begin to practice sucking on the paci in preparation for nursing!  We have made leaps and bounds and the doctor says he is progressing faster than expected.  Please pray that this continues and that the bumps that we encounter in our journey are minimal.  Josh's parents leave tomorrow but my mom is arriving.  I am thrilled to see my own mommy as this journey has been difficult for me (every woman needs her mom during the birth of her first baby), but oh-so-thankful for Josh's parents.  They have taken such good care of us and we cannot thank them enough.  Josh's dad even got to hold Keagan today, which made his month I am sure! 

Regarding my health:  I couldn't stand the headache anymore so Josh and I went to another hospital across town and received another blood patch.  (had to go elsewhere for insurance purposes:  St. Francis is out-of-network for us, but our insurance is going to cover Keagan's care in-network due to the emergency situation BUT I cannot receive care here without paying an arm and a leg).  I am feeling better but was told with firm advice to take it easy for the next couple days so I don't have to have them enter my spine a 4th time for a 3rd patch!  I told them not to worry, I am tired of lumbar punctures and I am immensely tired of the spinal headaches!!  Praying to God this one "sticks" and I don't have to go through this ever ever again!!  Now, hopefully, I can sit/stand up comfortably to see and love on my baby!
Without further ado, pictures from today:

Josh's dad seeing Keagan for one of the first times!

One of Keagan's amazing nurses

No More CPAP!!!!

Sweet Feet!

Josh gets some Kangaroo Time

Introducing: Keagan Wade Owens

Date of Birth:  June 22, 2010

Time:  3:07 pm

Weight: 5 lbs 10 oz
Length: 18 inches

(The short end of the) Story:  On June 22, a Tuesday, I went in for my typical Tuesday ultrasound/appointment thinking I was going to leave to go to work.  My ultrasound was a combo biophysical profile (BPP)/growth and development ultrasound.  First his growth:  he looked to be weighing about 5 lbs 1 ounce which we were thrilled about!  Second was his BPP:  HR was good, cord blood was good, however practice breathing was diminished and amniotic fluid was severely low.  My doctor decided it was time to have a baby.  I was only 36 weeks and 3 days so I was hesitant but my (wonderful) doctor said it was best, and we have since learned the severe consequences of allowing a baby to remain in utero with severely low amniotic fluid (still birth).  Ok, I was as ready as I ever would be.  It would be a non-emergency emergent C-section.  I was scared to death, to be honest.  The most I have ever had done was my wisdom teeth removed and to this day ask phlebotomests to use the "baby needles" when drawing my blood!  So the thought of having spinal anesthesia and being awake for major surgery was alarming.  Fast forward from 7:30 am to 3:07 pm and here is what you get:

My baby is beautiful and I survived the c-section.  I did learn later that Keagan was so wedged butt-first into my birth canal that my doctor had a difficult time getting him out.  I did hear the grunts and did feel an awful lot of tugging but didn't have a clue at the time what a difficult delivery I actually had.  Keagan was very bruised from the event and he was known around the nursery as "that baby" in regards to how hard he was to get out of me!  Good thing he wasn't any bigger!  While in recovery I sadly learned that I wouldn't see him that day because he was having trouble breathing and had to be hooked up to oxygen.  Josh visited him the nursery but I could not due to my recovery from the c-section.  His condition worsened on Wednesday as did my own:  I developed a horrendous spinal headache and had to have a blood patch put into my spinal cord (look it up). This helped until Thursday evening and I was able to finally hold my new son briefly, which calmed him considerably and made his work of breathing better. 

That night I learned he had taken an even further turn for the worse.  Keagan was transferred to the Level III NICU at St. Francis Medical Center in Missouri that night and Josh went with him.  I stayed at Western Baptist until Thursday when I was discharged.  I have finally made it to St. Francis, but unfortunately my spinal headache has me flat on my back in bed so my visits with Keagan are few and far between.  I did get to hold him today, which was the most wonderful day of my life. 

Because of Keagan's position in utero, he had "frog legs"!

Because of the molding of his head in utero:

Keagan has immature lungs and a surfactant deficiency (surfactant opens the lung alveoli so gas exchange can occur).  The neonatologist intubated him Wednesday night and put man-made surfactant into his lungs until he is mature enough to produce his own.  He has since been extubated and is breathing with the assistance of a CPAP machine.  He has gone from 54% oxygen to 21% oxygen (which is what room air is!  YAY!) and his O2-saturation has maintained around 100%.  He is slowly improving.  He does have a feeding tube but I have been able to produce milk (soley pumping) and he is receiving only breast milk now!  He was getting formula and was refluxing on this but is not doing so on the breast milk so this is another victory!  He did have a radial arterial line but this has since been removed (victory!) and his blood and lung fluid cultures have also come back negative for infection (YAY!).  The poor baby is hooked up to every line and tube possible but his status continues to improve.  Our goal for tomorrow is to wean from the CPAP to a high flow nasal cannula and increase his feedings. 

Unfortunately my spinal headache is horrible, worse than the pain from the c-section.  I cannot sit upright at all and have difficulty visiting my boy.  But today they set up a recliner and his status was good enough that I could hold him.  I held him for an hour and a half and he opened his eyes for the first time since he's been here once they laid him on my chest.  It was heart wrenching.  I also got to hear his lungs work.  What once was merely a squeal when he cried was a full fledged scream today!  YAY!!!  We are so thrilled! 

There is so much more but I will spare you the rest, just wanted to get you updated on Baby Keagan and our status.  Thank you to all our friends, family, and co-workers for your love and support during this incredibly difficult time in our lives.  I appreciate all the texts and calls and emails.  While you may not hear back from me, know that I am appreciative, just incredibly focused on the hear-and-now and don't want to spend all my "down time" texting and updating every person individually.  So, please do not be offended if you do not hear from me, I am more than thankful for your prayers and concerns and they do not fall on deaf ears (mine or God's).  We are so thankful we are Christians and have a loving God to turn to in our times of need.  He has blessed us with a beautiful baby boy and we couldn't be more thankful for our family.  Josh and I continue to hold each other up and are doing well.

Something about a Number

The Number Six:

Today is our 6th Wedding Anniversary!  We really didn't make any plans because our main focus has been preparing for baby...so we took it easy all day and then decided to grab a bite to eat and head to Maggie's Jungle Golf.  Maggie's Jungle Golf is miniature golf with the added bonus of a petting zoo!  We started out by touring the zoo, via golf cart, and ran into some interesting animals!  Unfortunately I left my camera in the car, so we took pictures with the phone.  They aren't the best quality, but the evening was hilarious so I had to document it.  We really had a great time and laughed more than we've laughed in a long time... 

Beginning what was the most exciting golf cart ride in a petting zoo!

Stop 1: Camel and un-penned goats

Really?  A camel in Benton, KY?!

Goats are so cute, but my goodness are they needy!  They KNEW we had food!

Feed the goat before he gets into the golf cart with us!

TOO LATE!  This "cute" little guy climbed into the golf cart the second we got out to check out the camel.  It would NOT get down and kept pawing at the seat as if in preparation to buck us, and then it would chew on the seat or the steering wheel or whatever.  Hilarious.  I was laughing so hard!  Josh was freaking out and trying to push him off, but this angered the goat and he would paw at the seat as if ready for a challenge! 

A gentle,soft sheep...until he jumped up on me when I quit feeding him!

Oh the donkeys!  Such funny creatures!!!

The goats found us again!!

Peacocks everywhere!

After safely making out of the petting zoo, and with all of our fingers!, we tackled 18 holes of miniature golf.  I feel certain I didn't win (I didn't add it up!) but I know neither of us should think of going pro!  It was a lot of fun and our evening wrapped up with snow cones!  YUM!

The Number Five:

This past week my co-workers threw a baby shower for me after work.  It was my 5th shower!  (the 4th was given by women in Josh's family, unfortunately I have no pics from the event)  I am so very blessed to work with such fun, loving, and supportive people.  Even the boys joined in for some cake (who could resist strawberry cake with buttercream icing?!)!  It was so very nice and I feel certain we are ready for baby Keagan's arrival!  Thank you, Hampton's folks, for all that you have done for me throughout my pregnancy and for such a generous baby shower!

Some of my co-workers:  Becky, Cheri, Ladonna, Lois, Carol Ann, and Mitchell

The Number Thirty-Six:

This weekend marks the 36 week point!  YAY!!  I am thrilled to have made it this far given all the issues we are dealing with and the fact that twice a week I am faced with uncertainty of whether I will walk out of the doctor's office still pregnant!!  Here's the baby bump! (and notice Oscar in the bottom pic...this is where he ALWAYS stands during pictures!  So funny!)

The Number Nine:

As of today, I have 9 days left until my baby boy is born.  I have been scheduled for a c-section on June 28th at 1:00.  It is so hard to believe that we are so close to meeting our son!  At my last doctor''s appointment my amniotic fluid was low and I was a bit concerned I wouldn't get out of there...but I did!   I have another appointment tuesday morning and we will get an idea of Keagan's weight...this will probably be close to his birth weight.  I have been having stronger Braxton-Hicks contractions and I think that I have had a few "pre-labor" contractions, at least in describing them to the doctor this is what we decided.  Unfortunately I have been incredibly fatigued lately and occasionally not feeling well, but it is hotter than hades here and I am sure the heat is getting to me.