BABY SHOWER & B UPDATE

This is the diaper cake I made for the shower. I love making them. They are so much fun and a cute center piece.


Here is a pic of the food table... we had soooo much yummy food. Too bad I didn't get to eat any of it!


This is me opening presents. We got SOOOO much cute stuff! .


Here is a pic of just some of the guests who came.


Just some of the decorations we had up.


This is the hooded towel that Auntie Beth(my sis in law) made for Braxton! Is is so cute! I love it! I can't wait to have him use it!

So the baby shower was a great success, despite the fact that I had to move up the date and plan everything for it right away. Everything turned out perfectly though and just the way I had imagined, except for the fact Braxton was already here. He must take after his Mommy. I actually got to attend my baby shower since I was born a month early!. We got so much stuff for B, we almost have everything we need now already here! We are still waiting for the furniture to arrive and for the bedding to be finished. Then we can finally put his room all together and get ready for when he comes home! I was kinda sad that I didn't get to do the game when you have people guess his birth date and weight/height. So we decided to have people guess the date and weight when he comes home! So if you want in on this, just post a comment with your guess! Anyways, So thanks to everyone that came and especially to those that helped get everything ready! It was so much fun catching up with all our friends and family we don't get to see all the time.


BRAXTON UPDATE:
1. As of today, he weighs 4 Lbs. 5 Oz. and is 17 1/2 inches long! He keeps getting bigger and bigger by the day!
2. When we had the meeting with his whole team, the Dr said that he will probably get to go him in 4 weeks. She also said that she has no serious concerns about him.
3.Last Saturday, they took him of the CPAP and put him on nasal prongs ( like what old people wear.) His oxygen level is at 25% and they are slowly weening him down to 21% (what we breathe).
4.They started feeding him by bottle. He can only eat about 10-15 cc by bottle then they have to tube feed him the rest. But it is so amazing how well he is doing with it. The amt he takes by bottle keeps going up. I actually got to feed him twice! BEST day ever!
5.He gets to wear little outfits now! He looks so cute in them.
6.He pooped while I was changing his diaper, TWICE! I started to gag the first time it happened. At least I haven't gotten peed on yet!
7 He's looking better and better each day! I think because he is filling out more and more. All I know for sure though, is he looks just like his daddy!

Like Father, Like Son

Yep, our baby Braxton is already a die hard SUNS fan just like his Daddy!

So since Braxton is in the hospital and we dont get to dress him or decorate a room for him, we decided we would do a little something to make him feel more at home. The hospitals provide these blankets that go on the incubators, so when they are sleeping the lights from the room don't bother them. They are of course, well, UGLY! (no offense) So we had our good family-friend Sameera sew a Phoenix Suns one for B. I wasnt too fond of this fabric either, but I know how much Jesse likes the Suns and he cant wait to watch the games with B. I think we are going to have her make another one, so we can switch them out. I'm thinking this next one will have a skull print on it. The nurses loved that we made him one! Now, hopefully it wont get lost at the hospital!

A Little Update

Here's a little update... Braxton is still doing really well. In the past week they have put him back on the phototherapy just to take him off again a couple days later. His breathing had improved so they tried taking him off the CPAP but yesterday they decided to put him back on it since he was using so much energy to breathe. Hopefully he wont have to be on it much longer. I love being able to see his little face. I just stare at him trying to figure out who he looks like more. I still cant figure it out!!! His feedings are now 13 mL every 3 hours and he now weighs 3lbs. 10oz. I have gotten to hold him almost every day this past week. I love being able to spend time with him. I cant wait to take him and be with him 24/7. We have a meeting this week with his team of drs, nurses, aids,social workers etc... EVERYONE. We will go over what has happened, what will happen, goals for him etc. It will be nice to go over all of this with everyone there at the same time. Maybe then we will have a better idea of long it will be until he comes home.

On a side note, we registered last weekend for my baby shower. We had to move up the date since our little guy decided to come early. We have already gotten our baby monitor, car seat and stroller. I love my carseat/stroller. I cant wait for my carseat cover to get here (if it ever comes... thats a whole other story. Im so annoyed!!!) . Its freakin so cute!!! Now this week we get to stress about getting ready for the shower... I hope it will all come together by next weekend! We'll see! We will post more after we have the meeting with his team later on this week! Thanks again to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

1 Week Old and Some BIG Milestones

So I will make this quick since we have been posting so much. I can't believe that Braxton is 1 week old already. Wow, does time fly. When we showed up to the hospital today, the nurse told us that Braxton was a bad boy and pulled out his breathing tube again :-(... but then went on to say that the decided to not put it back in. I couldn't believe it. They switched him to the c-pap instead. So NO MORE ventalator. Just oxygen being given to him through his nose. (like shown in the picture) She also informed us that they removed his UAC (the line that measured his blood pressure through his bellybutton). This meant that we could actually hold him sometime soon. I was so excited... and so excited that he was doing so well. I couldn't believe how much he improved in one night!

I, too, hit some milestones of my own. I changed his diaper (by myself) for the VERY first time today. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. I kept asking the nurse if I was doing it right. She probably thought I was retarded. I also got to feed him, well it was my milk and I got to give it to him through his feeding tube, so technically I was feeding him. Then the BEST thing of all, I GOT TO HOLD HIM FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME(since the hospital). It was amazing... It was the best feeling in the world. It felt completely right. I seriously never knew that I could love someone so much. I didn't want to put him down. It kills me everytime we have to leave the hospital and say goodbye and today was even harder... he began to cry when I put him back in the incubator. Luckily, he had his pacifier. Yep,thats right. He already has a binkie... its so small. Its crazy that he already knows how to suck on it and the nurses say he loves it. I can't believe all that happened today. Wow, so much to take in!

No More Cyclopse!

So just a little update on our little buddy Braxton. Everyday he is improving and when I say that, he has been doing great since day one, but has shown great improvements everyday. The most recent update is that he had the I.V. taken out of his hand which is nice cause it was huge and covered about half of his arm, but they took that out and had a pick line put in so its a lot easier for them to do is blood tests. They just do blood tests every four hours to check the oxygen levels in his blood and those have been coming back great. With that they are slowly weening him off the ventilator oxygen to where he will be breathing just as we do. The main purpose still for the ventilator is to just keep his lungs open though. With all the blood tests they've done since hes been in the NICU, they had to do two blood transfusions which they say are completely normal for NICU babies just because of the amount of blood they take for testing. So no worries there. A funny side note is that when we called to check in on him last night, the nurse said they weighed him again and she goes, I think there is something wrong with the scale because he went from 2 lbs 14 oz to 3 lbs 4 oz. But they told us his weight was gonna fluctuate over the next few days because of the blood being put into him. Aside from that, everything really looks good. Saturday afternoon we were able to give him his first blessing for health and strength. My dad and Mals dad did the blessing and it was very touching. We all just stayed around his little bed for a few minutes til the nurse kicked some of us out, lol. We can only have 4 people at bedside if its me and mal and one set of our parents. Otherwise, its only me and mal and one visitor. But overall it was a great day and hes been doing fantastic over the past few days. So we just ask that everyone please keep our little one in your prayers and we will greatly greatly appreciate it. Many more updates to come! And as far as the title of the post, we do warn you that Cyclopse will return sometime soon, lol! (but its perfectly normal)

Our Little Cyclopse

Yes, thats right, I am referring to our baby as Cyclopse. I happen to think its a cute little nick name for him since he looks just like Cyclopse from X-Men because of the "shades" they have on him. If you are wondering why he is wearing shades and why it looks like he is in tanning bed, No, he's not fake baking... he is having his phototherapy sessions. He will be under one of these lights for at least the next week because he is a little jaundice. They say that is completely normal for preemie babies because of their liver.

As for his over all health, they say he is doing great. He's really healthy and not sick.. which really suprised all of the doctors. Everyday we go in and they tell us he has improved, even though he was doing good the day before. They did another eco-cardiogram today to make sure everything was working correctly in his heart because the amount of oxygen in his blood should have been a little higher. Once again, everything looked good. They say his lungs just need to develop more which will happen over time. They began feeding him today. They started with formula and then added my milk to it. They will feed him every 3 hours into his feeding tube. Tomorrow they will take out his hand IV and give him a pic-line instead. We are still waiting for his line in his bellybutton to be removed so we can hold him. Hopefully, only a couple more days before they do that and then we can start the skin to skin contact.

I got to help take his temperature and change his diaper (and yes, he totally peed on the nurse while we were doing this!!!)She says he pees alot... he must get that from me! Its really hard to watch him get his diaper changed though. It stresses him out alot and you can tell he is upset and crying but because of the ventilator you don't hear him. I cry everytime he cries. Its really crazy how much he responds to us though. If hes upset or stressed and his heart rate is high... touching him and talking to him lowers his rate and settles him. It actually makes me feel useful. So thats about it for now, we will keep everyone posted on whats going on with Braxton!

28 Weeks and Impatient

So most of you know by now that we had our beautiful baby boy, Braxton McKay Rucker, on March 7th, 2010 at 1:59 PM. He weighed 3 lbs 3 oz and was 16 1/4 in long! He was born 1 day shy of 11 weeks early. Here's the story of what happened that day....

I woke up at 7:30 AM with some pressure and cramping in my lower abdomen. I didn't really think anything of it at first. I thought maybe he was in a weird position or maybe I ate something weird or perhaps it was just Braxton Hicks contractions (hmmm.. how fitting!) I decided to not wake Jesse and go downstairs since it hurt to much to lay down. After about 30 min, I realized man, these things are just not getting better and the more often I looked at the clock, the more I realized that they just seemed to be happenening every 5 min ON THE DOT! I, of course, just still didn't think anything of it. I mean, I was only 28 weeks, thats way to early for serious contractions, right? (WRONG!) By 9:30 Jesse had come downstairs and asked me why I was awake so early. I told him I had been having pains every 5 minutes but I was going to wait until my mom got out of church at 11:00 to ask her opinion. Jesse kept telling me I should call the doctor or just go to the hospital but I didn't want to be one of those annoying patients since I had just had to call him the month before when I went to the hospital the last time. I started getting ready for church... that was interesting I could barely stand everytime I had a contraction but I was determined to do my hair and shave my legs. 11:30 rolled around and I finally called my mom. I told her I was having what I thought were contractions 5 minutes apart for the past 4 hrs. Her words were to call my dr. I did. Dr. Mikel told me to go to ob/triage. I considered packing a bag incase I was in labor, but nah, most likely they were just gonna send me home, right?

Jesse and I left for the hospital and told my parents we would call them once we knew what was going on. ALL of my family was going to be in a baby blessing that started at 12:00PM. So we arrived at the hospital 10 min later. They began hooking me up to monitors and getting my health history and the nurse said she was going to check me to see if I was dialating, etc. She did and said man, the baby is really really low, then she said and you are dialated to a 5 or 6. I looked at her and said are you kidding me? She wasn't. I looked straight at Jesse and began crying..out of fear, happiness, shock, etc... I told him to call my parents. I think he tried every single extended family member and NO ONE would answer cuz they were all in church. They hooked me up to meds to try to stop the contractions and called my doctor, who just happened to be at the hospital already. He came to check on me not 5 min later and I was already dialated to an 8-9. Now I really started freaking out. I mean I was totally not ready for this. I wasn't due for another 12 WEEKS! I was so scared. Jesse was scared. He got a hold of my parents who rushed down to see us. He then called all his family etc. Everything was happening so quickly... hooking me up to things, giving me medicines, asking me if I had questions. Umm hello, I was in so much shock I couldn't even think of any questions. Everything was a question.

They wanted to transfer me to Banner Desert to deliver because they deal with high risk pregnancies and preemie babies. But they didn't have time. There just happened to be one of the states best neo-natal specialists with his team at the hospital seeing someone.(how cool is that, its like everything was happening for a reason) He came down to talk to me and they were there the whole time to be ready to take care of Braxton. I started panicking... I had been having horrible contractions but now the thought of actual labor pains, all I wanted was an epideral and I thought it was too late to have one. I wasn't even going to ask. Luckily Jesse did. They wheeled me to the delivery room, rolled me on my side and started giving me an epideral. I serioulsy thought Jesse would have passed out since he hates needles. But he did great and held my hand. By the time they rolled me back over and got me settled it was time to start pushing. I had no clue what I was doing... I didn't even have time to sign up for childbirth classes. But Dr. Mikel and Jesse helped coach me through it. In between pushes, we talked about Keeping Up With the Kardashians and other random stuff. Kinda random,but it kept me calm. I probably pushed for only 10-15 minutes and only tried to give up twice (Jesse wouldn't let me) and then he was here! Seriously, did I really just give birth to a little boy. It all felt like a dream and I was going to wake up any minute. But this was REAL!

Tears of happiness and fear swept over Jesse and me. The neo-natal team began working on Braxton. They were trying to get a tube down his throat to help him breathe just in case. I heard him make a couple noises which made me feel somewhat better. They actually let me hold Braxton for a minute. (I guess normally they don't let you cuz the rush them back to the NICU unit)I was so happy, scared, excited, worried and most of all in COMPLETE SHOCK! To sum it up, contractions weren't horrible, labor wasn't bad, and I basically feel completely fine. A little sore and tired, but I can't really complain. I am just glad to be home with my husband and know that my baby is in the best place he can be right now.

Braxton was transfered to Banner Desert Sam last night by air vac, where he will stay for the next 8 weeks or so. They say everything looks good. His vitals are good and he was actually a better weight and length for his age. He has a tube to help him breathe (even though he is breathing on his own, its just to make things easier for him) They also are giving him fluids and he will soon start taking milk, slowly. He was a little swollen because he wasn't urinating but I guess that changed tonight. The nurses say he keeps peeing through his diapers and they have to keep changing the sheets. That little stinker! But its a good thing. He also ripped his breathing tube out... but the good thing he was breathing on his own and it means he's trying to fight it. Its so hard being away from him. All I do is cry when I am there because I can't hold him yet and its so hard seeing him all covered in wires with iv's and in an incubator. But its for his own good. I know he is in great hands. We just keep praying that he will get healthy and strong quickly so that he can come home to us... even though we are completely unprepared and have NOTHING! At least we have all the time he is in the hospital to get his room decked out and get him all the gear he needs! We love Braxton so much and can't wait to bring him home. We want to thank everyone who has visited us, called us and prayed for us. It means the world. We love you all and can't wait for you all to meet our Baby Braxton.