Sunday, January 6, 2013

Miracles started happening from the minute Maks was born, and I know it is because of the faith and prayers of family and friends. For example, the water heater that Logan was in the middle of installing when I yelled for him to come to the bathroom, was installed for us by the time Logan got home from the hospital on Saturday night. Some ward members, one of them a plumber, had received news of what happened and got a hold of my parents to get access to our house to finish installing it. Thank you to Jeff Barnard for facilitating that! I know Logan appreciated his warm shower on Sunday morning!
Sunday morning, Maks was also taken off of his ventilator. He was only on it for around 12 hours! He was then put on a bubble CPAP with a pronged nasal cannula to help deliver the oxygen right into his airways. This was a huge accomplishment considering his gestational age.
One of the things the neonatologist told us was very common for these tiny premies is brain bleeds. These occur because the blood vessels in the head are so tiny and fragile. To monitor for these, an ultrasound of the head is performed on day of life 2, 4, 7, and 30. His first one was on Sunday. This is something that I have been very worried about because of the impact the bleeds can have on development. I asked everyone I knew to pray that the ultrasound would come back with no bleeds. We were all so relieved to learn that the results of the ultrasound were "unremarkable" according to the report. So far he had not developed a bleed!
Maks also had his first echocardiogram on Sunday. This was to check for a PDA (patent ductus arteriosus) and other cardiac abnormalities. We were also relieved when these results came back negative
I don't remember very much from Sunday. I think I was still kind of in shock and in pain from the surgery (and I'm sure I was heavily medicated.) I do remember when Bishop Irving and his wife came by that night for a quick visit. The Bishop got pretty emotional when he said that almost every prayer said in church meetings that day included Maks and our family. This was so comforting to hear, especially considering we have only lived in the ward for a few weeks. We are definitely feeling the strength and love from our ward members.
This picture that Logan took is blurry, but it shows Maks with the new CPAP on. If you look closely, you can also see Logan's wedding ring next to Maks. You can see that it would easily slide all the way up his arm. He has the covers over his eyes because they are still fused. I believe today is the day the doctors told us that although his gestational age was 26 weeks, he is actually the size of a 24 weeker. Normally, eyes are opened by 26 weeks.


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