Day 59 - New Years Eve!!!

Here is the little man, (6lbs now) sitting in his little chair that vibrates and makes nature noises....I hate crickets....As you can see he's still a bit small for it so we have to roll up towels to hold him in place.

Day 58 - Love my tiger

Sorry it's been so long since I updated the blog. Frankly there just isn't time during the day. So, because of the demands for updates, here I am on Saturday morning after pulling the night shift updating the blog. I hope you happy Grandma's...LOL

It's been so long that I don't know what happen this day so your going to have to just enjoy the picture.

Day 57 - For Uncle Marc

Baby saw his doc yesterday and he said all was well, including the 11 grams he put on in the last 5 days, taking his total weight up to 6lb-6oz. We thought we got Brayden in to a routine that allowed us to get 4 hours of sleep but that lasted all of one night. Scary thing is this is going to go on for another month or so. YUK!

This little picture is for Uncle Marc. He bought the little man his first pair of "Flamed Shoes." For those that know Marc, no other words are needed...for those that don't, I wish you did, he's great! Thanks Uncle Marc!!!

Oh yea, it's a little difficult to get him to sit up on his own, so we help. As well, I wish you could read the shirt. It has an alarm clock at the bottom and on top it says "mommy's little alarm clock." Truer words have never been spoken.

Day 56

Baby is doing awesome. He is eating as much as we can give him so were looking forward to seeing the doc today to find out how much the little man has packed on.

G'ma and G'pa Lassetter came for a visit too. G'pa loved holding the baby but better be careful because he was being watched every time by his body guard.

Day 54 - Family Photo

Got some photos sent to us by Grandma Pam and thought I would share them with all of you. No real update to give other than Erin and I just wanting to thank all of you for the wonderful presents you gave Brayden (btw, you forgot us, but my mom says get use to it) for his 1st Christmas.

First picture is 3 generations of Sholty men and the next is a shot of our family, include Sophie.

Going to try and catch a few winks before my shift starts. YAWN!!!!!!

Day 53 - Merry Christmas

Baby's first Christmas went off with out a hitch. Erin and I splitting the night shift till we can get him to sleep a little more (please, God, be soon) at night. G'ma and G'pa Sholty came over to spend a little time with him and G'ma even read him a book. Other than that, it was pretty quiet day for us.

48 hours down, 157,248 to go till he turns 18...I'm going to take a nap before my shift starts.

Almost forgot, Erin got him an outfit of an angel, and she will kill me if I don't post it. So here is G'ma reading his book and a pic of him with his wings.

Day 52 - X-mas eve

We made it through the first night, just barely!!! It seems that Brayden has his days and nights mixed up so he is awake all night and sleeps all day.....boy that sure was fun staying up all night with him, glad that's not going to happen again.....RIGHT!!!!!

Here's a little pic of "the little man" in one of his 1000 outfits right after he had some tummy time. For those of you that don't know, you're no longer aloud to let kids sleep on their tummy's because of SIDS. So, he gets tummy time twice a day so that he learns to lift his head etc.

Looking forward to baby's first Christmas tomorrow.

Day 51 - I'm home - YEA!!!!

We got home with the baby a few hours ago! Everything is great and it's a pretty emotional day for all of us. Here he is in his going home outfit and packed up in his car seat. Thank you everybody for everything. We will continue to update the blog regularly to keep you all up to date on his progress.

This has been the longest 10 weeks of my life, maybe now I can get some sleep (evil laugh) or maybe not!!!!!

Day 50 - One more day

this is it, the last time were going to say bye to Brayden in the hospital. Tomorrow he is coming home with us. We are nervous, scared, happy, sad and so on.

No pic today because we forgot to take one and I don't like posting old ones.

Day 49 - 7 weeks old - discharge plan

this is it, the day we've been waiting for. Doc G came into the room today and said he's going home on Saturday....that didn't really fit into my plans so I asked if we could wait till Sunday, he agreed. All joking aside though, Erin and I better get home and finish putting together all his stuff...not that he's going to use it for like 6 months...it's like cleaning your house before the housekeeper comes to do it. Sorry, I digress.

Oh yea, Brayden failed his car seat test...they will do it again tomorrow after he's had a little more caffeine. If he fails it again, ol' dad has to buy a special bed for him to go home in. I finally believe it, I will never have money again for the rest of my life. Oh well, its worth it.

here is a pic of the little man in his car suite. does he look small enought???? btw, he is 5lb 11 oz now.

Day 48

OK, so the test came back and it is Apnea from his prematurity and not an underlying issue. That means he's coming home. They will start him back on the caffeine today and give him his car seat test. We don't have an exact date yet but barring some major turn of events it should be int he next few days.

We have finished the nursery so here is a little glimpse.

Day 47

Well it's official, they are going to try and send him home to us. He is now eating everything from the bottle and doing well. He still gets pretty tired but it's to be expected. The doc has ordered numocardiogram to see exactly what his AB's are from (hopefully it's still prematurity) and not an underlying issue. If it is from prematurity they will load him up with caffeine and an apnea monitor and send him home to us. We didn't really want to go home with a monitor but it is what it is!

here's a pic of the little man trying to help mommy hold the bottle up. The clarity isn't to good because I didn't want to use the flash and scare him.

keep your fingers crossed!!!!!

Day 46

More developmental tests today plus, I was forced to finally feed the little guy. I didn't do so well and neither did he. I hope this is what the future holds. Erin had to finish it and of course, he did just fine with mommy. I guess that's why we have'em aye?

Were continue to work on the nursery in preparation of him coming hope in the next week. No word yet, but we should know soon.

Day 45

today was a pretty exciting day. Erin and I took our infant CPR class and Elise, the occupational therapist, stopped by to do Braydens developmental examine. The little man was pretty tired so we only got through half of it but it was fun and he did really well.

Here is a little pic of Elise trying to get Brayden to do stomach crunches...ok, not really, she was trying to see if he would pull his head up by himself. Clearly he did.

Dr Gogitana is his doc this week. We really like him (not that we don't like the rest of you docs in case your reading this) and the way he handles Brayden. Hopefully he will have good news for us about him coming home.

Day 44

Brayden continues to have good days then bad etc. We're not sure what's going on, but I believe we have pushed him to far this week. In the past 10 days, he has started bottle feeding, breast feeding, been taken off his cannula, off his caffeine and so on. Now, I'm not a doctor (I think I should be at this point though) but that sure seems like a lot to me for a preemie.

The docs here are some of the best in the state, so we know they know what they are doing, but someone should tell Brayden. At this point, we're not sure when he's coming home. It's probably 50-50 at this point that he'll be home by Christmas. If he's not, we will deal with it by knowing he needs a little extra care before he joins us at home. Frankly, I'd rather he stay until they are sure he's 100% good to go with his breathing.

Erin and I take baby CPR tomorrow and then we meet with the OT to go over all the developmental issues that preemies go through....ARGH!!!!!

Day 43 - Much better

Today was a much better day than yesterday was. Brayden was back to his normal self, eating like a champ and having fun throughout most the day. He is now 5lb 4 1/2 oz. As I've said before weight will not be his issue. He does continue to have desats and bradys through out the day and night but it's to be expected.

Here's a little pic of what we like to call "the preemie hug." This is when he grabs your fingers (or thumbs in this picture) and pulls your hands to his chest and holds them for several minutes. Not sure why he does this but he does. I guess we will find out why from his OT on Monday.

Day 42 - not so good

Not one of our better days, in fact it was probably the scariest since his birth. Little man has a tendency to let us all know when we have pushed him to far and he did so tonight. While Erin was feeding him, he decided to have one of his Brady cardiac, which typically wouldn't be any big deal but this one was different. Not only did he not raise his heart rate on his own, but he started to turn pale and then blue..the nurses had to rush over and give him some oxygen. Needless to say we were very concerned. Let's hope tomorrow is better. No Picture, sorry.

Day 41

Brayden is now up to 2 out of 3 feedings from the bottle. Next step is 8 of 8 and he will be on his way home. The doc has confirmed he is doing everything in his power to get him home to us by Christmas...If he doesn't, I'm in trouble since I had planned on wrapping the little man up and giving him to Erin as a present. I wonder what happens to a husband when he forgets to get his wife a Christmas present????

Anyway, thought you would enjoy a picture of me and the baby. By the look on my face I still have NOOOOO clue what exactly it is I am suppose to do with him....let's hope I figure it out soon!!!

P.S. Sorry for the delay in posts, with him coming home sooner than later we are spending all our time getting the nursery ready..we will post a picture of that when it's done

Day 40 - 5LBS

I guess it's time to start calling him medium man as he as officially hit 5lbs. Nothing new to report today except the weight! The Occupation Therapist did leave the nurses a note to let them know how he likes to be fed, so I thought I would share it with you today

Day 39 - Time for my closeup

A little to much on our minds I guess as we forgot the camera AGAIN...Thanks to technology and our trusty camera phone, we captured one of the best pictures to date.

As for the little man, he is officially off his oxygen and is getting bottle fed every other time now. I tried to meet with the doc today to make sure he knew what he was really doing but that didn't go over to well....guess I'll try another tactic tomorrow.

Day 38

Due to technical difficulties (We forgot the camera...oops)no pictures were taken today. so here is a picture you haven't seen from day 37. He doesn't look real pleased to have that bottle shoved in his mouth, does he?

Oh yea...Little man is doing good. Rumor around block is that Dr Voght is putting him on the fast track home....we shall see!!!

Day 37

No other way to say it, THIS HAS BEEN AN AWESOME WEEK!!! The docs have lowered his flow down to .5 liter and have instructed the nurses to get him off his cannula. As well they have pushed his feedings up to 4times a day and can now start taking breast milk. He weighs just about 4lb-14oz. With out any kind of set back he should hit 5lbs in the next day or so.

I hope that by the end of the week he will be "nippling" all his feedings and be ready to start weening off the caffeine.

Keep your fingers crossed that we get to take him home by Christmas.

Oh yea, I almost forgot, we were able to bath him today for the first time, here's a pic of that. It was easier than we thought but he's a wild man.

P.S. We kept the bath rated "G" since we never know who's checking out the blog. haha

Day 36

Every day keeps getting better for us as Brayden keeps putting on the weight now at 4-12oz and lowering this flow now at .75 liters. He hasn't had a Brady Cardiac in 24 hours which is one of the requirements for him to go home. As well, they have him hitting the bottle 3 times a day now and he's loving every minute of it.

Were trying not to get to excited but it's hard. Sunday's are usually his rough days so he will probably bring us back to earth tomorrow.

Here's a nice little pic of the little man giving us the ol wink-wink letting us know that he enjoyed that bottle and to keep'em coming

Day 35 - 5 weeks old

As usual, the little man continues to put on weight. I'm beginning to think he's close friends with Barry Bonds....ok I had to throw that in there since he's going to court today - GUILTY - sorry, I digress. He is doing so well with his feeding and AB's that they are giving him the bottle 2 times a day now and lowering the flow to 1 liter. We're trying not to get to excited but it feels like he's turning the corner and heading for the home stretch. Could this be a very merry Christmas????

Here's a little pic of Erin burping him for the first time...he's got this part down pat.

Day 34

Not too much to say today. The little guy did well the day after his first bottle feeding gaing about 25 grams. They did lower is flow to 1.25 liters, or maybe that was yesterday...actually I'm not sure, my days are running together. Here is a picture of the little man and he dozes off to sleep.

Day 33 - Welcome Elisa, Occupational Therapist

Today started out as a normal day with a call to the NIC-U to see how the night went and so on. It wasn't till roughly 5:15pm that this day turned out great. At that time, we were getting the baby ready to eat dinner when we met Elisa, NIC-U Occupational Therapist, who said it was time to give this little man a chance at the ol' bottle.

She was surprised that the doc asked for the OT Eval at such an early age and prepared Erin and I for a let down, but my little man took that as a challenge and knocked back 30 out of the 37 CC's he was due to eat at that time. Needless to say, the OT was stunned!!!!

This is a giant step for the little man and his pathway home.

Day 32 - Brayden and Lester..or is it Chester??

Another positive day for the little man as he continues to put on weight. He's up to 4 and 1/2 pounds now. So clearly weight is not going to be his issue.

My mom, Grandma S, made it down to So Cal today after a 5+ hour drive to see the little man, and as we all have, she immediately fell in love with him (again). Oddly enough though she showed up with a moose named Lester or Chester; can't remember which. I'll let the picture do the rest of the talking on this day...

Day 31

Again were glad the weekend is over. For some reason the little man likes to give us all problems on Sundays with his heart rate etc.

Today we got a new Doc and we really like him. He says that by the end of the week he wants the little man feeding on the bottle and off his forced air.....let's see how that works..so far it hasn't done well.

Because Erin can only look at my ugly mug for so long each day we have decide to figure out how to actually use our camera that we've had for a year +. Here's a nice little black and white of the little man.

Day 30 - The Prince has Arrived

Really no need for commentary today, the shirt says it all, or so Erin says...sure am glad I'm the KING!!!!

Day 29

And another 2 ounces last night, bring out total up to 4lbs -4oz...That's 10 ounces this week alone. Although it was mostly quiet today, we did have a major event happen...it turns out that if you don't quickly get the diaper on a little boy, they have a tendency to PEE. And, of course, he pee'd on me. Thanks Brayden!!! This picture is for great g'ma anzelmo. She loves pictures of the little man in his outfits and hats. Don't we all.

Day 28

A fairly nice day for us. Brayden's doc tried to get him back down to 1 liter of flow but he again decided he wasn't quite ready for it. Maybe in a few more days. He hit 4lb - 2oz today and continues to eat like a champion, but that's about all the excitment. Right now we just wait and hope he keeps maturing quickly. Here is a little shot of the dude sleeping...like you haven't seen this before, aye?

Day 27

Well, I guess since yesterday was such an exciting day for us, we (And by we, I really mean Erin and Grandma P) forgot to take pictures of the baby today...we did however get a nice picture of the security guard at the front of the hospital right before he came over and almost killed us for taking pictures...I guess we look like terrorist. To give you a sense of scale, the women in the picture to the right is 6 foot 2.....ok I'm kidding, but this dude is MASSIVE. So, here is a picture of the biggest security guard on the face of this planet!!!!!!

Day 26 - 4LBS

Today is the day, after gaining what seems like a ton of weight the past 3 days (another 40 grams last night) the little man has finally hit the mark. If he keeps up his torrid pace he will be 17lbs come New Years Day....ok, so I'm exaggerating, but he would be 6lbs if he keeps this pace up.

And, not only did he get to 4lbs but he also made it into a crib last night and was able to hold his temperature. So, here he is in his plastic crib...considering the amount of money it's costing for him to be in the NIC-U, I would have thought this crib was made of solid gold.

Day 25

Brayden continues to show me up! After stating that the 80 grams he gained yesterday was most by far, he decided to pack on 90 today, that's right 170 grams in 2 days, that could me a world record. 24 more grams to go till 4lb. Eventually he has to poop though so it may still be a few more days. We also found out that since he is doing so well again, they are going to begin his journey out of the incubator and into a normal crib...I'm not sure how were going to take pictures with out the plastic glare in our face but I'm sure we'll manage. Here's to hoping tomorrows pics are from a crib.

Day 24

What a day...after somewhat of a concering weekend, we found out that all his vitals are back to normal and he gained 80grams, the most by far since his birth. He continues to inch closer and closer to the ever elusive 4lbs. For today's picture I decided to go rated "R" and show off the little man in his diaper. Is it just me or is he posing???? And by the looks of that belly he is clearly taking after his daddy...the verdict is still out though.

Day 23

Not one of our better days as Brayden made sure the docs knew he was not at all happy about them lowering his flow form 1.5 liters to 1 liter. Erin and I stressed nearly all day until they finally raised it back up. Trial and Error I guess! Again considering how rough his day was we didn't get a chance to do our best impression of the paparazzi so here is a picture of what we stared at all day.

Day 22

Talk about a quiet day! The little man decided he was going to sleep all day. Good news is he gained another ounce, taking him to 3-10.....4lbs is right around the corner. The bad news is, it was such a quiet day that we only got pictures of the back of his head and his incubator...so here's a picture of his incubator.

Day 21

Exciting day for us as little man continued his weight gain after thanksgiving (Haven't we all), gaining another 35grams, taking him up to 3lb - 9oz. As well, we had many visitors with Marc and Georgia coming down from Oregon and Rod and Maritta (Sorry if I spelled that wrong, Maritta) making another trip from sin city to see their nephew. Late in the day that little man got pretty frisky and uncle Marc was able to hold him, not for long though as the "little man" decided to put a scare into the "Baby Boy" and had a few heart rate drops. Marc did good but he quickly handed him over to Ol' DAD....as if I really know what I'm doing.

Glad you all could make it and look foward to seeing ya soon!!!!

Day 20 - Happy Thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving to the little man! His nurse shared with us that he gained a whopping 65 grams today (sounds to me like someone had a little to much pie), that now takes him up to 3lb - 7 1/2 oz. If he keeps it up he could hit 4lb in early december.

P.S. Thanks to Georgias parents, Tim and Phyliss Beers, for having us for t-day, great food and a good time...wish we could have stayed longer.

Day 19

Well, it was a fairly quite day, lots of sleeping and very little weight gain. Little man is still hovering around 3lb-50z. Erin is looking forward to the babies first thanksgiving and by the looks of that hand in his mouth so is he...can you say MONKEY BREAD, Brayden???? I know I can.

Day 18

Although this picture is a little blurry thanks to the plastic on the incubator, I had to post this picture. Erin thinks he's just stretching, but those arms in the air sure remind me of a future tennessee titans qb who just scored his first touchdown. That's right, you heard it here first, the next Titans QB....I'm charging 25 bucks an autograph...let's get the line started on the right side of the incumbator please, and no pushing!!!!

Day 17

Well, well, someone else got to hold the baby today. That's right, I finally relinquished my hold on the little man and let G'ma Pat hold the baby. Considering her first baby was a 10 pounder, she had no problem holding this little tike. Now it's time to get all the other grand parents down here to start baby sitting...whoops I meant holding him. :)

Day 16

Just got home from the hospital. Erin and I were able to hold the baby for more than 2 hours today. he gained 10grams today, so he is just under 3lb-4oz.

Day 15

Just got home from the hospital. The little man gained 20 grams today and is now 3lb 3oz. He is getting 30cc of formula over 1.5 hours and continues to do well. Mommy held her baby boy again today, but he was a bit fussy with his sats.

Day 14

Well, the little man is now 2 weeks old but still only 30 and 3 in terms of gestation. As in the past he continues to do well and we found out from Larry the nurse that he was again graduating, this time to nursery "C". He went up 53 grams today and is now 3lb-2oz. Oh yea, almost forgot, he loves to suck on fingers now too.

Day 13

Well, well, well. I told everyone that I would hold the little man till he hit 4lbs. That all changed when his nurse found out that I had yet to hold him. She pushed me in the rocking chair and handed me the little man. It took a while to get used..frankly I was affraid to move. He started sucking on my neck too..was worried he'd give me a hickie and I'd have some explaining to do to the ol' wifey.

P.S. My nose only looks that big because he's that small...thanks mom for the nose.

Day 12

A very exciting day for us as we found out yesterday that Brayden could now start wearing clothes. Erin and G'ma of course went shopping as soon as they found out. Here's the little man in his first outfit. It's a little big but he'll grow into it.

Day 11

Fairly quite day, little man decided he would sleep all day, including while Erin held him.

Day 10

Some how we forgot to take pictures of the "little man" today. But we did film a short movie of daddy holding his head.

Day 9

Nothing new to report except mommy got him a stuffed pig for his "room." Here he is sleeping with it.