Last blog and New Blog For Our Boys

Luke did great at his sedated Echocardiogram on Friday, he is officially off all his medications and doing fine without them!!! His heart looks normal according to his cardiologist (Dr. Peter Chang). He doesn't expect Luke to have any problems with his heart. This was of course great news to hear!!!

We also want to let you know this is our last blog on this blog page for Luke. We've started a new blog for both our boys called "smiles and giggles", that can be viewed at:

www.theyoungs2004.blogspot.com

We'll keep this special blog to remember Luke's first year and our experience with his hospital stay and miraculous recovery. We also want to leave it up for anyone who may want to find information and encouragement for a preemie, micro preemie or extreme preemie that has CPAP, NEC, PPHN, BPD, ASD and a Cardiac Catheter procedure. We hope that Luke's experience can offer encouragement to other's. We especially hope someone who has a preemie with PPHN finds this blog hope full, as a preemie with PPHN living very long is doubtful, but Luke decided to beat the odds and we hope his blog will help other parents in our shoes see that the odds can be beat.

There IS always hope and in Him all hope remains steadfast and true, do not give up, do not give in, but do let God.

Love,
Luke and family

He's Crawling!!!

It's official, Luke is crawling. His proud Godparents were happy to witness his first continual crawling movements forward in their home on Labor Day. He continues to pull himself up on things too, he's a busy boy!!!

Still working on more pictures....

One Year Appt.

Now we're coming to a close of August, I thought I better write about Luke's terrific "1" year appt. He's pushing 20lbs. at 19lbs 12oz. and continues to grow very well, so well that he's growing out of his lung issues rapidly. His lungs sounded "normal" to his pediatrician. Another great surprise, as we didn't expect that for awhile longer. He'll still need to stay as healthy as he can this winter and we'll be keeping a lower profile, but we don't want to think of that right now when we're having summer fun!!

We've been getting out and doing all sorts of fun things as a family. A few of our favorites were, the Evergreen Aviation Museum, the Lebanese festival at St. Sharbel's, Beavers Baseball game, The Zoo and many trips to the local park. Luke is warming up to the swings.

Soon we'll be visiting Grandparents down near Florence, OR in Mapleton and that will be a our first family trip to the area in a long time. I think we're all looking forward to a trip away.

Luke is still working on crawling, starting to pick his knees up and moving forward, mostly backwards, but he's still faster with his scooting skills.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Melinda

Luke Turns 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the delay since our last post. We've been busy! Included is a picture of Luke chewing on his Birthday bib, I am working on getting more pictures downloaded.

Since Bryan and Luke's Birthday's are only a few days apart, we did a kiddy party for both of them with 9 of their closest friends. They also had small parties on each of their real Birthday's.

We've experienced a lot of emotions centering around Luke turning 1, for me it started on the Friday before his Birthday, that was the day a year earlier that I had the doctor appt. that sent us to Emanuel, where we would wait for his premature birth. The thoughts of that day in particular caused a flood of emotions. Then on his actual Birthday, thinking back to the moment he was born, which started us on a journey with Luke, which we can't thank God enough for the outcome. And his Birthday also marking that he has been home as long as he was in the hospital, so we can officially say, he has now been home longer than in the hospital, which is a pretty darn good feeling.

What has Luke been up to? He is getting more and more expressive. He LOVES watching Bryan and just wants to do what he is doing, always trying to get his toy or get over to where he is. He is the pro "scooter", he can scoot anywhere. He has started getting up and rocking on his knees, so he will be crawling any day now. He is saying more sounds and is displaying more expression for his likes and dislikes. He's a pretty feisty guy and does not like it when a toy is taken away from him. He's eating more solids, but is quite picky, so we're working on those veggies.

Upcoming things for Luke are his vision follow-up appt. and a sedated Echocardiogram in September, sedated because he won't stay still long enough to get good readings. He's being weaned from his Sindenafil heart drug, so if his Echocadiogram looks good, he will be off of it for good. He still has a pending hernia operation for this fall, it will be a day surgery to fix a hernia he developed from an incision site during his intestinal surgery. These are just small things compared to what he's been through, but we wanted to keep you updated.

We've seen some of our NICU friends this month and we always enjoy seeing them and it's apparent they enjoy keeping tabs on Luke.

Hope to get more b-day pics up for you soon.
Melinda

Happy 4th Of July!!

Having fun on the swings today! July 3rd

Here is Luke attempting a ride on his brother's car. He isn't quite riding this, but he sure is interested. He wants to do everything big brother is doing!!

Luke is doing really well! He's teething and trying so hard to crawl. He has mastered "scooting" and has become quite good at it. Soon I know he's going to be all over the house. We spend a lot of time outside and we're also enjoying taking him places with us now. He's meeting many people who are just thrilled to see in the flesh the little tiny baby they've prayed for.

For Jeremy and I, we are thrilled to get out as a family once again. To places all together is very nice.

Luke has a few follow-ups coming up early July, so I'll keep you posted with those.

Melinda

June 4th Doctor Appt.

Today Luke had a check-up and he is 18lbs. 1 oz. & 28" long. His pediatrician is very pleased to see his great growth and so are we!!

Not a lot to report, but our family had the stomach flu, the first for Bryan (poor boy) and lucky Luke didn't get it (yippee!).

We've had a nice visit with some of Luke's nurses and Luke went to his first Mass at St. Cecilia's last Sunday. We will try and visit St. Francis this weekend where Fr. Tom can see how much the 2lb baby he baptized 1o months ago has grown!!

Melinda

Luke's First Mass Sunday May 25th

Today Luke attended is first Mass with us ever and the first time we've attended Mass as a whole family. A wonderful glorious and blessed time for us.

Jeremy and I decided that Luke's first time attending Mass should be at St. Sharbel's Parish in S.E. Portland. The Priest at St. Sharbel's, Abuna, visited Luke in the hospital after meeting Jeremy on a chance visit. After Abuna visited Luke is when Jeremy and I could see changes in Luke, big positive changes and there were changes for Jeremy and I. Abuna brought a certain peace within us and I must say, he is the Holiest man I have ever met.

Bringing Luke to St. Sharbel's for his first Mass was a special place for him and for Abuna and his congregation. Today also is the Feast Day for Corpus Christi and at the end of Mass before the traditional march outside the church with the Eucharist, Abuna told the story of Luke and how Abuna came into our lives. He talked of the miracles of Luke in front of the congregation, it was very sweet to see Jeremy proudly hold Luke up with tears from each of us, it was very moving.

A sweet day for us as a family that we wanted to share with you.

Melinda

Luke's Physical Development Follow-up

Today Jeremy and I took Luke to his physical development follow-up and he is doing great. He is right on track per his due date (making him around 6 months corrected age). He loved all the attention and playing with toys and rolling around with several smiling ladies watching him, he was quite a flirt. He won't need to follow-up until November (his 1 year corrected age). The first picture is from his physical therapy appt., that is the doctor in the picture (Dr. Budden).

After the appt. we visited our NICU friends. His main doctor, Dr. Cheldelin and one of his main NNP's, Kim L. were there today too, so he got to see them and see several of his favorite nurses. I've included a picture of him with nurse Nicole and one with her and nurse Kasey. They were all thrilled to hold and play with Luke, they are amazed at the progress he's made.

It's was very nice to visit the NICU and then be able to leave with Luke.

Melinda

Eating Carrots Yum Yum!!

Luke is 9 months old!

It's hard to believe that it's May already and Luke turned 9 months a few days ago.
All is well! At Luke's check-up yesterday (his last RSV vaccine for the season) he weighed in at 17lbs. 5oz.
Luke had his first cold, a light one and he did very well. I think I was more nervous than anything.
He's now doing a little reverse scooting when on his tummy. He can roll from back to front and front to back now. His doctor says to watch out, in the next few months he'll start to take off! It's exciting for us to watch him discover the world of mobility.
He's also discovering real food with vegetables. He eats pretty well and so far prefers the peas over the carrots.
We also got word that by mid-May we can take him out a little more, still not huge crowds, but at least he can meet all our families that haven't seen him.
Bryan is a good big brother and loves hugging, holding and feeding Luke, he probably would drag him around the house if we let him.
Thanks for keeping up on Luke and our family,
Melinda

Another Picture

Here's Luke in a box.

Latest Pictures

Here are some recent pictures! The 1st one is Easter, 2nd is how big brother Bryan shares his train tracks and 3rd is a stroller ride.

Enjoy!

April 5th No more diuretics, rice cereal & special visitors

I am so sorry that I haven't written lately. I am starting to get e-mails wondering how Luke is doing, so I better hop to it. The picture is a special family that visited us from Idaho, see more below about their miracle named Ryan.



Luke is doing good. He has officially been weaned off of his diuretics. Trying to wean him off of these in the hospital didn't go so well, so having it not effect him at all now is great! He really is a different baby than when he was in the hospital, he's just doing so very very good! Truly a blessed boy!!

Luke also met with the surgeon who did his intestinal surgery for a hernia he has and sometime later this year Luke will need to have the hernia fixed. It's day surgery and he'll need to be intubated, which is always tough on those lungs, but we can't wait too long to take care of it.

He met with his regular physician for immunizations and Luke did very well considering he had 4 shots (ouch!). He is up to 16lbs 1oz and 25 1/2" !

His latest accomplishments are rolling over with push off assistance from his daddy, but he's getting the hang of it. He's doing a lot of hand to mouth activities and making lot's of noise, he's testing those vocals out. He found his feet yesterday, sitting up (with assistance) and touching his toes. He loves sitting up and playing with a toy.

Luke will be trying out rice cereal too, that's right you read it, he'll start solids!!! If he does well, we'll start adding a few things little by little. Soon he'll be joining us at the dinner table.

I also want to share that we've had some more special visitors. Including a phantom nurse (sorry we missed you nurse Christie) who delivered enough train tracks for Bryan to cover the house from end to end. He LOVES them! I love them too, because he is busy building and playing with them for hours!! We also had a nice dinner with nurse Barb (Luke's Primary nurse) and I don't want to forget the nice lunch we had with 3 of Luke's nurses last month, a tasty lunch in the company of these wonderful nurses/friends who will always be apart of our life!

We also had a special visitor all the way from Idaho a special boy named Ryan visited us Friday along with his nice family while on vacation touring Oregon. Ryan's mom contacted us when she saw a prayer request from our couples group we belong to (it's called Teams Of Our Lady and they send out national prayer requests to all members) go out for Luke back last summer, she shared the story of her Ryan with us, born the same gestation as Luke and he also had a wealth of problems, mainly big lung issues, but today is a healthy happy 7 year old boy. Ryan was an inspiration to us and it was wonderful to meet him and his family in person. Very nice people who have invited us to visit them when we can vacation in their area someday. I've included a picture, Ryan is in front to the left of Bryan.

Lot's of positive things to report! I just need to do this more often, so I don't leave these long updates for you.

Thank you for those continual prayers, we are very grateful and we hope to be in touch more often and post more pictures soon!

Melinda

Wed. March 20th "A normal heart!!!"

Today I heard the words "NORMAL" when describing Luke's heart! Words that were music to our ears!!! It's true at his follow-up appt's today, his echocardiogram showed his heart pressures in the normal range and the size and shape of his heart back to normal.
His diuretic doses are now being cut in half to start weaning him and soon his Sildenafil (the Viagra drug) will be decreased slowly.
We also found out that Luke is the smallest patient to have the Cardiac-Catheter procedure in Oregon.
His lungs sound good, still a long road for those tissues to re-grow and it's just a matter of keeping him healthy. We're doing a lot of hand washing around here.
He is up to 15 1/2lbs and he's starting to do some hand to mouth activity with his toys.

Luke is truly blessed and amazing and we can't thank you enough for all your help, support and of course prayers!

Monday March 10th

Here's the boy's today sporting matching shirts from Luke's Godparents.

We're never short on thoughts of the journey Luke has taken us on. We're very proud of both our boys.

Melinda

March 5th

Luke is doing good. We are enjoying home life more than anything. Luke loves his big brother, he constantly watches him and smiles when Bryan plays with him. With the weather getting better, we've been spending more time outside.
Luke had a doctor appt. today and his latest weight is 15lbs 5oz.
He's starting to look a lot less like a preemie with his better muscle tone. His latest thing is to put him hands in his mouth. He also likes to hold his own bottle when he eats.
We've enjoyed the visits from his nurses from the NICU. Wonderful people that have become our friends and we love it when they come visit. These are people that we'll be in touch with forever.
I'll try to keep up with more pictures posted.
I can't say thank you enough for all your prayers and support, you each helped get us through a tough time. More importantly Luke thanks you!
Melinda

Luke had his first stroller ride outside today (he's tucked away in his car seat in the back), the weather was perfect! Both boys had a great time! Bryan loved having his little brother on board.

Melinda

Wed. Feb. 20th

The first picture is Luke getting ready to head to his follow-up appt's. Which he had an appt. this week and he's 14lbs. 9oz now, growing very well!

The 2nd picture is Luke doing his excercises with his big brother right by his side.

We'll keep posting more as often as we can.

Melinda