10-26-08 6 months old today!

Yeah Blake is 6 months old today! Little turkey is getting so big. He goes for a check up tomorrow to the Pediatrician so we will see what his new weight is. On the 5th of Nov he will be officially 3 months old! haha He is getting so big!

BILL!

Holy crap! I just got the bill from St. Davids and apparently our insurance has not paid anything yet for just Blake's account so our grand total for JUST the hospital alone (Blake's bed and stay)and nothing else is (drum roll please.....................) $587,430.70 Yeah you heard me right Five hundred Eighty Seven THOUSAND, Four hundred Thirty dollars and Seventy cents. OH MY.... That is on top of the specialist bills, Neonatologists bills that bill $1,750 a day just to see him once, xrays......you name it he has a bill for it. So the amount above is only for his bed stay! HA Oh and there is the case of my bills as well. So you know what I will be doing first thing Monday morning when my insurance opens up. Anyway Rob thought I was having a heart attack when I opened the letter because he heard me scream from across the house and came running. Guess Blake really is the Million Dollar Baby (well half a mill)!

10-17-08 Off Oxygen

Just a quick little update. Blake went in for his OCRG Oxi Sleep test this morning where he slept for 6 hrs and they studied his oxygen saturation levels and breathing patterns. He did great. He is still having high levels of periodic breathing, but he was able to hold his O2 levels at 97% and higher. He did great, so his pulmonary specialist has taken him off his oxygen and is leaving him just on his monitor for the next month just to be safe. He has been so happy today with out the tubes taped down to his face. He has smiled all day long! I still try to reach for oxygen cords when I stand up to walk with him until I remember "oh yeah, no more cords" haha. So my little Pinochio has one less wire holding him down. We can carry him around freely with out worrying about his O2! YEAH! Oh and he weighed in at 11 lb 3 oz.

10-10-08

Aunt Gwen with Blake

Proud parents!

Passed out after a long weekend

My diaper cake Tiff made me

Me and Mel...NICU mommy's

Me with Bella

Are you kidding me? Mine is plenty thanks!.. Me with Grant, Blake and Grey

Me and Katy with the boys...Blake sees me, Nicu Fams

Strike a pose

Taking a break from his oxygen

Cissy with Grant, Katy with Blake and me with Grey

Cuddling..my tired boys

Blake's first football game

He is so sweet!

So Blake is now 11 pounds! Yeah. That is so great. He has come so far. He is 5 1/2 months and adjusted he is really 2 months old. He has started smiling more now and is being more vocal. His sleeping is better at night but during the day he does whatever he wants. We went back to Austin this past weekend for my 10 year high school reunion...Rob was not thrilled to be going back to Austin so soon. Blake went to his first football game Friday where my team got the pants beat off them, but we had fun. Saw some old friends and Blake met a bunch of new kiddos. My best friend Tiffany had a "Meet Blake" party for us Saturday where we got to see a lot of friends and some of our close NICU friends as well. My friend brought her twin boys that were next to Blake in the NICU and they hung out so we could take pics and catch up. My best bud Gwen came as well as other good friends of ours. We had a really good time seeing them. Tiffany baby-sat him Saturday night so we could go out for our party. He was so well behaved for her. He got to go on a picnic Sunday where we caught up with old friends and met their new little ones. We also went by the hospital and saw the staff and our friends Mel and Tim that are still there with Isabelle. She is getting so big...up to 5 lbs. We also met some new friends that are at RMHC that were sent in from Galveston during Ike. Her name is Becky and her son is fighting for his life. He was 26 weeks I think but is having a much harder time and isn't doing very well so we brought Blake by to see her and cheer her up. They bonded very quickly. Our prayers are with Devin and his mom Becky...... This week I have been sick and trying my best not to get Blake sick. I have had a really bad upper respiratory infection and feaver and am just now feeling more like myself a little. He saw his pulmonologist today and next Friday he will have his sleep study to see how his breathing is coming along. Cross your fingers. Not much to update on right now. Just that he is doing good. We miss everyone and would love to hear from you.

Pictures

Go to www.myspace.com/jannapokluda to see recent pics of Blake. More coming soon. Just click on the picture of him at the top of the page there and it will take you to photo albums.

9-25-08...one day away from 5 months old!

Blake will be 5 months old tomorrow. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. He went to see his pediatrician yesterday and weighed in at 10 lb. 6 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. The boy has some major legs. His muscles are so big in his legs and arms. The doctor said you can already tell he is going to have a sports build like his dad. He got his second round of immunizations yesterday. Oh by the way we are now finally back home...yeah.. Houston we have electricity! Now we just have to replace our fence. OK so he got his shots which of course he cried and made the most pitiful face so I started crying because I hate to see him in pain. After that appointment he went to see his cardiologist who gave him the all clear on his blood pressure. It is finally back down to normal. So after a long day visiting doctors we were headed home when his apnea alarm went off. It beeped a couple times so I started to look for a place to pull over, then it went off so I thought OK he is breathing again but was still trying to find somewhere to pull over. A few seconds later it started going off again. This time it didn't stop. I freaked and sped up cutting people off trying to find somewhere, anywhere I could pull over. There was no where. So I started doing like 100 to get to a place I saw up in front of me. I pulled in, slammed it in gear, jumped out to get to the back and he was so not breathing. His face was pale white and his lips were turning a bluish purple. I did everything I could to get him to breathe again. He finally did and started getting color back in his lips and face, but now he did not want to wake up. Boy did I make him mad rubbing his legs just to wake him up. Talk about giving me a heart attack. Once he was stable and I felt better I made sure he had NO blankets and turned the ac on high right on him so he stayed awake. haha. No more deep sleeps for him. He slept the entire rest of the day at home with me hovering over him constantly. I am so glad he is still on that monitor other wise who knows what would have happened. He is feeling much better today and went to see his Pulmonologist...one more of the many specialists he sees. We love his Pulmonologist Dr. Robertson....even though he is an Aggie....I am sorry, we love all his doctors, we just like giving Dr. Robertson a hard time because he is an Aggie and he hates it when Blake wears his burnt orange outfits. haha. So we went and saw him. He said for sure one more month on oxygen. If he continues to have these spells he is putting Blake back in the hospital, so I told Blake NO MORE SPELLS! PLEASE! He also said that Blake's jaw sits back a little farther than most babies and that could be one factor causing him a harder time breathing. He is going to keep an eye on it and if he notices it not growing or getting any better he might have to have surgery....ahhhhh no please. My brother had the same issue and had surgery when he was in junior high. That was so horrible for him. I do not want to see Blake go through the same thing. Well that is about it for now. Oh I found out my best friend Tiffany is going to have a little BOY! Whoohooo a playmate for Blake. I think she is due in February or March. All my other friends have had girls so he has plenty of girlfriends and now a best bud to add to it. He is also doing good with his contacts. He goes for his checkup on those on Monday. I am falling more and more in love with this little man every day.

Catching up to 9-20-08

Ok I hope I can remember everything, but I am sure I can not. Blake was in the PICU as you know and was released that following Monday with Oxygen ( he was in there a total of one week). The doctors gave us the ok so we were able to fly to Ohio for Labor Day weekend to see my parents. He did wonderful on the plane ride. It was of course crazy because we had to get his oxygen through the airlines for the plane, have the one waiting at the airport for when we got there and so on. But he slept the whole time except to eat. The flight attendant gave him his first pair of wings....even though he is already our little angel (aaahh) Blake made many rounds visiting people. He got to see all the super State Farm employees that work with my mom and have been praying for him. My mom's office had gifts for him which were of course adorable and they got to see and hold him. He then went to meet all the wonderful people at my dad's lab who have also been praying for him. They threw us a surprise baby shower which was a lot of fun. He was a very popular man there. Thank you to everyone at State Farm and Grove City Medical Center for everything you did for us and for the wonderful presents and love you gave our little man. So we then went shopping...whoohoo at the Carter's outlet by the lab and used the gift cards we got at the shower. Wow that was fun, we got so much great stuff. My parents had to ship it back to us since we couldn't fit it all in our suitcases. lol. So that Sunday we had Blake christened at my parents church. It was really nice. Blake wore my christening gown that my mom had made for me when I was a baby. Robert wasn't too sure about putting Blake in a dress :) My grandmother got to also meet her first Great-grandchild who gave him lots of love hugs and kisses and also got to feed him. My parents also spent a lot of time with Blake. My mom sang to him and told him stories and my dad and him had starring contests. My brother and sister-in-law also got plenty of practice with him. I told them he was birth control haha. Everyone said my dad was glowing when he was around Blake...that is good. They also gave us a break a couple nights and took shifts with my brother and sister-in-law taking care of Blake throughout the night. What a blessing in disguise. We got some much needed rest. Blake went to his first fair at the Canfield Fair in Ohio where we compared his size to a thousand pound pumpkin, guess who won. All in all it was a wonderful trip. Oh before we left he weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz.

Now when we got back to Houston he got his contacts. They showed me how to put them in and take them out. He of course hated every minute of it and wanted me to stop. I have to take them out every week, clean them and put them back in. It is a chore and takes one of us to hold his arms down and the other to put them in. And of course, I have to be the bad guy putting them in because Rob doesn't want to do it. Thanks...haha He has been seeing a lot better though. I have still caught his eyes crossing a little bit from time to time but it should start to get better.

Blake is now under the care of ECI...Early Childhood Intervention Team. They are going to visit him once a week for 30 minutes to help him work on skills that he is behind on. Since he was so premature, he is lacking some of the skills he should have, mainly his fine and gross motor skills. We are currently working on rolling over, tracking with his eyes, grasping things and responding to voices. Poor thing, we are doing so much to him: giving meds, messing with eyes to put in and take out his contacts, taping, pulling tape off and re-taping his oxygen tube to his face, putting his monitor around his chest....he has had enough and he tells us so regularly.

Thanks to hurricane Ike we had a mandatory evacuation for La Porte. We went to Kerrville and spent time with my aunt's. Thank you thank you Aunt Cindy for taking us in for a week. I know I have said it but it was very generous of you. We really appreciate all you and Uncle Robert did....and you too Aunt Jan. Blake started getting a little sick while we were there and started vomiting a lot again. He also had a slight fever. He is doing better now. He has been alert a lot more during the day and evening too. This next week he will go to see all his specialist that he didn't get to see due to the hurricane. We got very lucky with our house. All we lost was our fence. Thank you Lord. We are still however out of electricity and came home tonight and are staying at my mother-in-laws so Rob can go back to work Monday. His job has been so wonderful working with us. We were not able to come back sooner because we have to have some kind of electricity for Blake's monitors and we had to have oxygen delivered to Kerrville since we ran out. What a mess! Marie's power just came on a day or two ago so now we have a place to stay in Houston and they are starting to get stores open as well. Oh, and we also drove down to Concan to visit my family there on the Frio. If you ever go there make sure you visit Frio Dry Fifty Store and Neal's Cafe. Oh yea I almost forgot, my aunts sent Rob and I to dinner and they babysat Blake for a couple hours so we could have an evening alone. How sweet was that. Thank you!

Wow I can't believe in 6 days Blake will be 5 months old. Holy cow where has the time gone.
Oh and another update on my friend's little girl Isabelle that is still at St. David's Nicu. She is doing fantastic. She has come a long way and I believe has just been moved to a nasal cannula like what Blake is on. Her lungs have improved drastically and she is just as feisty as Blake. They are able to hold her daily now and she is growing like a weed. She is still fighting infections so please still keep them in your prayers.

Since staying at my aunt's house the last week, Blake started staying up during the evening, going to bed at around 12:30 am and sleeping till 5:30-6:00. Some nights he still does every three hours but for one period of time each night he sleeps a good bit. I just hope he continues this trend once we get back in our house. He is also holding his head up a lot better on his own. He still is a bobble head lol but he is getting better at it. We have started him with about 30 mins of tummy time in the evenings for him to work on his head, rolling over and other motor skills. He hates it. Of course spoiled man wants to be held. Rob and I have to go clean the house and remove debris tomorrow while Marie babysits.

Once I can charge my camera, I will download pictures. We tried to weigh him on the scale of our own the other night and he was somewhere in between 9-10 lbs. We will see this week when he goes to the doc.