Update

Mason had a swallow study today. They gave him milky barium in a bottle, fed it to him while xraying. They were making sure no formula was getting into his airway. The test was normal! 

His reflux is getting better with the nutramigen and thickener. 

The next concern is the fast breathing. We go back to dr Friday for this. 

God works miracles with our baby! Our faith has been made stronger! We believe that he will be healed! 

My Harper...

You see, there was once a lady named Harper. Her real name was Margaret Harper, but I called her Harper for short. When I was a little girl, Harper lived down the street from me in Port Neches. She lived in a pink house. I loved Harper very much. I stayed with her often. I was very sad when we moved away. However, we stayed in touch through the years the old fashioned way, letter writing. She kept up with me all through the years. The thing that makes me the most sad is that Stephen never got to meet my Harper. She was like a grandma to me. Sadly a few years ago Harper passed away. I didn't know about it until months later. It was then that I knew if I ever had a baby girl I would name her Harper. When we found out we were having a boy, I begged Stephen to let me name him Harper. He and my friends and family said no! It's a girl's name. So if we are ever blessed with a girl, you already know her name! :)

Fast forward to last night. I got a card from Leonard, her husband. He wrote the sweetest note to Mason. It brought me to tears. It means more to me than gold. I will always treasure it! 

Sorry it's upside down. :)

Update

Mason has acid reflux. He has also been congested. His belly has lots of air. And, he's breathing fast. His doctor is concerned. So he had a chest xray. Thankfully it was normal. He is also going to have a swallow study done Tuesday. 

She changed his formula as well. We now use nutramigen. Also, we have to mix in gelmix to thicken his formula so it will stay down easier. He is also on zantac three times a day. 

We pray he can get some relief soon!

My insight on mommyhood

1. Hot coffee, what's that??? 

2. Shaved legs? That's a luxury!

3. What schedule? This boy is going to eat when he wants to eat!!! :)

4. Sleeping in----oh I remember the days!

5. You want Mason to poop? Just put him in the carseat all nicely dressed and buckle him in. Watch the magic happen!

6. He is an excellent sleeper. During the day. 

7. We've been known to go through 4 diapers. (Just in one changing)

8. Those little snaps on pajamas are nearly impossible to match up. (Especially at 1am)

9. When your baby is sick, you will do whatever it takes to make them better. Even if it's something you said you would never do. For example---

10. We love this little boy more than we ever thought we could love a human!!! He completes our family in ways we never knew possible! He is the peanut to our butter. 

We love you Mason Parker Wright!! 

Newborn pictures

We went to Camera Shy to take pictures. They did a great job!!

Life lately

Since being released from NICU we've just been busy taking care of our precious miracle! Picture overload here---

We brought this goodie basket to all the wonderful NICU staff. They were wonderful!!

Enjoying all these cute faces Mason makes

Adoption finalization has begun

You are our sunshine!!

Mason loves his daddy!!

Mason has the matching build a bear that we gave his birthmom.

Mason's NICU roommate, Daneah

We have been cleared to go home tomorrow!!!! We are ready to see Texas!!

Day 14 Tuesday June 30

Stephen filling in to let the tired Mommy sleep. (It's 2AM Mountain Time on July 1st).

We arrived at the hospital early to find out our prayers have been answered and Mason is being released. Thus, the discharge process has been set into motion and we have to contact the adoption agency to let them know it's happening ASAP. Within the next couple of hours, we get discharged.

While I'm off prepping the Mason mobile; Stacey, the agency rep, and hospital personnel perform the discharge. 

When I return to get them, they come out the NICU only to get surrounded by security and a portion of the nursing staff. Oops, someone forgot to take off his theft band and set off a Code Pink. While embarrassing, it's nice to know they would have been there to protect my main man.

From here on, it's just parenthood in full swing. We make it to the hotel rather uneventfully although bad traffic made this daddy more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

The rest of the day has been settling into the hotel and trying to not be freaked out anymore than any other parent who brings their kid home from the hospital. Yes, we know that we are those parents and we will freak out over things that many of you laugh about. We don't have the instruction manual on a baby, but we do have the Creator of baby Mason and we will lean on Him and you, our friends and family to help us through this journey called parenthood. We thank you for the many prayers to get us this far.

In just a few hours, the next milestone begins. The finalization of the adoption proceedings. We pray that all goes well.

Updates may slow down over the next few days as we get into more mundane things like staring at the four walls of the hotel room. We won't bore you with those details, but will keep you informed as we get closer to returning home.

 

We appreciate your prayers, we still can use them for the court proceedings, the ICPC allowing us to travel home, Mason's adjustment to being outside the hospital and for traveling home.

Day 13 Monday June 29

 This is Stephen filling in for Stacey.

Today has been another roller coaster. We started out with the expectation of hearing your getting discharged tomorrow, but that came crashing down rather quickly. Instead, it was the routine of he didn't eat enough overnight and now your discharge is in jeopardy. Then the words we didn't want to hear started getting thrown around again: re-insertion of the NG feeding tube which would prolong the stay another 3-5 days.

If you think you just got frustrated reading that, imagine how we felt. The hopes of finally being out of the hospital potentially dashed over two consecutive shortfall feedings in which the total deficit was overcome by the rest of the feedings during the 24 hr period. Even removing the emotion from the situation and looking at it from a data driven (engineering) perspective would show you there are trends to his eating that were being ignored by only focusing on the two nighttime feedings.

In short, Mommy wasn't happy and neither was Daddy. Fortunately, we had a discussion with the doctor and he hadn't ruled out the discharge on Tuesday, but said any backsliding would mean retention. We are also frustrated because this jeopardizes two things the start of the ICPC proceedings which don't start until discharge and the court appearance on Wednesday to begin adoption finalization proceedings.

Our day did have a few good moments including a trip to the local Boutiquey place called Gardner Village for a little shopping. Followed by dinner at Tapanyaki Japanese Steakhouse, which is like a Shogun for those of you back home, with our friends and NICU cohorts Dan and Anna whose daughter Daneah shares the room with Mason. Excellent choice and just a good chance to maintain our bond and sanity while not listening to alarms, bells, and cries.

Through the 11:30 PM feeding, he met the goal in each feeding. Mason continued gaining weight and was up to 5 lbs 6 oz, yet another criteria for release.

He's a little bulldog and a battler.

On behalf of Stacey and Mason, I continue to ask for your prayers. Please prayer for Mason's health and eating and that we can keep our emotions and frustrations in check.

Day 12 Sunday June 28

When we got to the hospital today we found out our little guy passed his car seat challenge!!! Yay!!  One step closer to the door!!! 

Then he was given a hearing test.  He passed!!

Then we learned how to bathe him.  Then we fed him and he is really getting the hang of this eating business!!

He loves hanging onto the bottle when we are feeding him!!

And he doesn’t like for it to be taken away!!  :)

We have met many new friends.  This is the sweet family that we share a room with.

And this is my sweet family of 3!! 

Good night sweet angel!

Day 11 Saturday June 27

Today we got ready and picked up Chick-fil-a for breakfast!! :)

We got to the hospital and found out that Mason only took 18 cc on his own and the nurse finished the rest by tube.  (this mommy was very sad to hear this)

We had planned to go to Park City today so we went ahead and went.  I will tell you it was hard to enjoy myself knowing my baby boy wasn’t with us. 

First stop:  Utah Olympic Park

Bobsled track

Olympic ski jumps

Freestyle Pool

Then we headed to downtown Park City.  We looked at the little shops and then had lunch at the No Name Saloon.

Downtown

A good ole bear hug :)

Then we had been away from Mason long enough!  Time to head back to the hospital!!

And low and behold, we walked in and he was tube free!  Little stinker pulled the tube out.  He had enough of that thing!!!

Part of our discharge duties that have to be done before we leave is to watch a video and practice infant CPR.  So we checked that off the list today!!

This evening we went for evening feeding.  Baby boy ate well!!!  52 cc’s!!

Another thing to be done before discharge is the car seat challenge.  They are getting ready to do that as well!!  We brought the car seat in tonight.

We are ready to bring our boy home!!

Isn’t this the truth!!

Day 10 Friday June 26

Our little guy really turned a corner today!!  We learned a way from our awesome nurse Debbie to feed him and it is working!!!  He has been eating his goal amount all day!!!! 

Picture overload!!!  I just can’t get enough of him!!!!

Hopefully tomorrow he will get the tube out of his nose!  At that point we will most likely be in NICU 2 more days after tomorrow!!

There are a few things that we have to do before discharge.  We have to take an infant CPR “class” (video and practice on doll).  He has to pass the car seat challenge. 

We moved into a different hotel today that has a kitchen so we can do bottles!! :) 

That’s about it for today.