Tyler's Story Continued

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. School started and well, I have a new baby to play with :)

So when I left off, I had just been able to hold Tyler for the first time. It was an amazing day, I just wish Jake had been able to be there with us.

The next day when we went to see him he had a smaller canula in and was breathing mostly on his own. His swelling had gone down quite a bit and he was looking more like a baby and less like a blimp :)

 My mom got to hold him for the first time and boy was she in grandma heaven.

He had jaundice partially because he wasn't passing any waste, so he had to be under the bili lights for a few days.

The next day was Wednesday and that day getting out to the hospital was a challenge. I was hoping to get out to there by 1 or 2 in the afternoon so that I could spend a few hours there before my friend Valerie came to see him after work and then we would give her a ride home and she wouldn't have to spend forever there with us. We all went out to lunch when my dad got home from work, then my sister Megan wanted to go to our grandparents to get paid for mowing their lawn. Then they had to go to the bank and by the time they got back it was about 3:30. By that time I was getting really antsy because I really wanted to go see Tyler. They got back and we headed out. We were almost there and a tire on the van blew. We stopped and were changing it and I was talking to my mom about how maybe I should call Valerie and tell her that today wasn't going to work and we should try another day. Mom said that we would go out and that they would take Valerie home, she and dad would go out on a date and then come back out and get me later that night. That was so nice because I wanted to have some time with him where I didn't feel like I was being a burden because I had to have someone come out to the hospital with me since I couldn't drive. While we were there I had a breakdown and started crying because I missed Jake and my hormones were on the fritz and my baby was in the NICU and I didn't know when he would be able to come home. It was not fun let me tell you! My mom was awesome and told me that Jake would be here sooner than I knew and it was going to be ok. I felt better after that and snapped some pictures of my cute boy and also a video!

Well, my parents left and I got to hang out with my little boy all by myself which was awesome! My mom called about 9:00 and said that they were going to be about another hour or so and to keep enjoying my time with Tyler. I was glad because I wasn't even close to being done having my date with my little boy. 

While I was sitting there I was looking at the door. The doors were glass doors with a curtain across them for privacy. I could see under the curtain at the feet that walked by and while I was watching people walk by I thought "Man I wish that was Jake" and guess what! It was!! He totally surprised me by coming early! And my mom knew the whole time! I was so relieved it was like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders. He also surprised me with a necklace with Tyler's birthstone. 

Isn't it so pretty! It's a pearl and completely perfect :)

This is the first time Jake was able to hold Tyler. Don't they look cute? :)

The rest of that week was so much better than the beginning of it. I was so glad to have Jake there with me and it made dealing with having Tyler in the NICU much easier. 

 Here are some pictures of the week

Sunday before Jake went home we went to the hospital and Tyler got the repogel out! That's the tube that was going into his stomach and pulling stuff out. It wasn't green anymore which meant that stuff was going down through his digestive system and not just sitting in his stomach. That means that he was able to start eating! Jake was able to feed him before he left :) 

 Look how tiny he was! 

I love how awake he was all the time! He was so much happier when the tube got taken out of his stomach and he was able to start eating. It was a very slow process. We started with 5 ml and slowly increased every 12 hours by 5 mls. A week later he was up to 50 mls which is what he needed to be at before he could come home. 

Saturday morning I got a call from the doctor in the NICU and she said that Tyler had gotten a little bit of a fever and that his incision spot was inflamed and probably had a little bit of an infection. They said that they were going to watch it that day and if it didn't get better than they would start him on antibiotics that would last a week. They called a few hours later and said that they had decided to start him on the medicine. I was so bummed because we were planning on going home that weekend. It turned out to be a blessing however because I got Mastitis pretty bad and needed to be on my own anitbiotics.

For those of you who haven't had that before let me tell you. It is horrible! The worst part was that I would get hot flashes and horrible horrible chills where I couldn't get warm. I would have to have the nurses bring me a warmed blanket and sit in it for at least an hour to get over them. So having him still in the hospital while I was recovering was good because I wouldn't have been able to take care of him as well. So while we were waiting for the antibiotics to finish we snapped some more pictures :)

 I loved being able to hold my baby when  got there each day.

 This was Jenna's first time holding him

 I love this picture! It's so funny!

I love this boy so much!

Friday came and he finished up his medicine. We were able to go home that afternoon and boy was it a relief! 

Here are some pictures of that day!

 And we made it!

It was so nice having him home finally! 

 napping with mom

 He was the same size as my parent's cat Molly! 

 We were waiting for Jake to come pick us up after the semester. Apparently I am more comfortable than I thought, Tyler and Ranger the cat thought so haha

 He made it! yay!

Napping with Dad and Papaw :)

It was so good to have him home from the hospital!