Home now!

Actually we've been home for awhile now, but we are just now getting settled in by ourselves. My mom was here for a week, taking care of all of us. I don't know what I would have done without her. I'm actually wondering how I will be able to handle it. Drayven and I both cried when she left. So now it's just the four of us, trying to figure this whole thing out! Eventually I am going to blog about Cameron's first year, 365 days of Cam in photos, but for now these are a few of my favorites! Not to mention Dray with the nimmy (he never ever took one - till he saw his brother with one) and in the baby swing - that kid cracks me up!

It's about time.....

The time finally came that our boy was able to be weaned off the extra oxygen and was able to keep saturated on room air! We went to the nursery as soon as we could after hearing that news! It was so nice to finally be able to hold our baby! He was so wide awake and alert, checking all of us out. Drayven watched him, and just broke into giggles! It was so cute. I'm not quite sure what it was that he thought was so funny, but listening to him giggle while watching him watch his brother.......one of the best moments of my life.

So even though Cam was able to leave his "bubble," he still needed to be monitored in the nursery for about 12 hours. He's still there now, and is about halfway through his 12 hour monitoring period. I told his nurse that I didn't care what time it was that his "shift" was done down there; please bring him to my room as soon as he was able! He is so precious. The differences between the two boys still baffles me though, at least physically. Since we haven't gotten to spend much time with Cam, his personality is still a mystery. Maybe Cam will be as laid back as his brother? That might be wishful thinking. But after all this crazy waiting - it truly seems like an eternity ago that we came in to have this baby - I don't care, and am just ready to be his mom.

There's those Peepers!!

I have to admit that it was Heather Hartman who was my inspiration to go to the nursery tonight (before midnight!) to take some pictures of Cam. She runs two blogs one for each one of her sons, Jack and Charlie. They are 365 days of Jack......365 days of Charlie. Well I got it in my head that I needed to try to do that with Cam (I tried with Dray and failed) so Deric and I made our way down to the nursery earlier tonight. As we were getting there, his nurse said that she was just going to change his linen, which meant the bubble would get to come off for a few minutes, and since she noticed I had my camera......she knew it would be a perfect photo opp. Well, indeed it was! The little guy was wide awake, and let me take his pictures while looking right at me! So of course I need to post them......the last one is my absolute favorite. I am so glad I took the time to go down there tonight.......and Thank You Heather for putting the thought in my head! If it weren't for you, I would have missed this little moment of fate!

The Longest Day

So as it turns out, Cameron ended up staying in the "bubble" (that's what I've been calling it) for the whole day, and actually still is under the bubble. The doctor came in at one point and said that she took him out for about 20 min and his oxygen saturation stayed at 100%, which is good, so she wanted to try to wean him out of it. So, they dropped the level of O2 in his bubble to 40% to see what happened. Initially he did okay, but his respiratory rate increased, so they had to bump his O2 back up to about 50%. =( Major bummer for me, since I was so looking forward to him being out of the nursery today. What he's actually got is called TTN, or transient tachypnea of the newborn. They know that he can keep himself oxygenated with low levels of O2 in the air, but the problem is how fast he's breathing; it's still too fast. The doctor said this could be caused by the fluid in the lungs, like in TTN, or possibly by an infection somewhere. She had another chest x-ray ordered (the first one was read as negative) and the radiologist read the second one as negative too, but the doctor herself (our pediatrician) said she thought there could possibly be some fluid still in his lungs. All his lab work has come back negative, but since we're kind of at a stand still, she's ordered him some antibiotics to fight off infection that could be there but they just can't see :/ Having an infection causes increased air consumption (i.e. faster breathing) I wouldn't be able to keep all this straight if there weren't not one, but two lovely respiratory therapists in the family (Aunt Lynn, and Mimmy too actually!) so hopefully what I'm saying is accurate. In any case, now it's become a waiting game. Here is a link to a good website about TTN http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/lungs/ttn.html

Some of the information on there is kind of in contradiction to what I've been told. For the most part though it gives a good description. It says that it usually resolves itself within 24-48 hours. Let me tell you that this has been the longest 24-48 hours of my life. The article then goes on to say that within 72 hours all symptoms of TTN will end.........SEVENTY-TWO HOURS!!! It actually hasn't even been a full 48 hours yet (it's currently 12:51 am and it's a good question as to why I'm still awake) so I don't know how I'm going to handle waiting an entire 24 hours more. It doesn't sound like he'll be okay within the 48 hours - it sounds more to me that he'll need the full 72, but come on kiddo! Your mom is going crazy! I was supposed to go home tomorrow, but no one has made mention of that yet. I hope to God they don't send me home without him. I really don't know what I'd do with myself then. Not that I want to be in the hospital either, but it would be a lot closer to my baby, that's for sure!

Anyway, I'm posting a link to my facebook photo album of all Cam's photos. It's a lot easier to do that than it is to upload all the same pictures to 2 or 3 different locations. Here are some though of our new little family - I did have to share those =) I think we're pretty cute, if I don't say so myself

Click the link below to see more pictures of our new guy!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=172310&id=510361452&l=6ca36215d1

Introducing........

Cameron Michael Maguire!! He was born at 9:16 am on Tuesday June 8, 2010. He weighed 9lbs 8oz and was 21 inches long. He was having trouble "transitioning." That means he can't regulate the oxygen level in his lungs on room air, which is why he's got that bubble-like thing around his head. It's giving him air thats higher in oxygen than regular room air. They did a chest x-ray and all the fluid is gone, but he's still having trouble keeping his O2 level up. The nurse watching him in the special nursery said she wouldn't be surprised if he stayed there most of the night. So that means that we haven't been able to hold hold him at all, and we have to go to him in order to see him. Which is pretty devastating, but I'm managing. Drayven came up to the hospital to see me, and we took him to see his baby brother. He was quite fascinated by everything in the room, and very interested in the little body that was in that incubator. He even waved "hi" and "goodbye"to him, which he rarely ever does when you ask him to! Needless to say, it made me cry. He was such a good boy and really showed what a sweetheart he is. Hopefully Cam will be able to make his way out of the nursery soon so we can love on him - my heart has been aching to do that all day!

It's interesting that he's so much bigger than Dray was when he was born! He was born 3 days before his due date, and Dray was born 7 days after his due date. I thought for sure he would be smaller than Dray was, but somehow he got to be over a pound heavier and 2 inches longer than his big brother! That 10 day span of the differences in their birthdays (compared to their due dates) didn't mean much at all!

Drayven's Special Day

Ever since we knew we were having another baby, I really wanted to take Drayven out to do special things to show him how much he means to us. Since today was his last day as our only child, we took him to Chuck E. Cheese, got ice cream, gave him one of his favorite things (a balloon, of Blue, no less), and just plain had fun. It was definitely one of my favorite days with him ever, and I will cherish it always. We love you, Drayven James!!

WOW - where have we been?!?

So it's been nearly a year since our blog has been updated. Not that we don't want to keep everyone in the loop; we are just way busier than we ever dreamed we'd be. With working, school, and a baby.........it's hard to stay on top of things! And now we've only got a few days left till we're even busier than before, since we will be welcoming another bouncing baby boy into our family! We've got a C-section scheduled for June 8th, with the original due date being June 11. Our doctor said that if you have a labor that "fails to progress" like we did with Dray, the rest usually follow suit, and therefore we opted to go ahead and schedule another C-section with this baby. I picked June 8th, so the baby's birthday would be 6/8/10 =) I thought that was pretty clever. We have a few names in mind, although I predict we will end up not being able to agree on anything.

It goes without saying that there are probably thousands and thousands of pictures of Dray and us that will go without being uploaded; a year is a really long time to go through and sort out! So, I am *hoping* (meaning, no promises) to try to keep up better this time around. If not only for my own sake to be able to remember things when I go to scrapbook =) Which lets face it, probably won't happen for awhile either.