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

Tuesday Feb. 13th

Very sorry for not writing recently, but Luke is doing really well!!!
Today he had several follow-up appt's, most importantly a repeat EcoCardiogram and the results are really good. His pressures are now in the upper 20's, which means he's narrowing in on "normal". His heart is also working on going back to it's normal size and shape. His Cardiologist is just amazed and said that Luke is very blessed. Luke also met with his lung doctor, which is lungs sound clear. He'll meet with him and the Cardilogist again next month.
He then met up with the nutritionist and she is very pleased with how his growth is doing.
He is 14lbs 7oz and 24" long. He's growing very nicely. He hasn't been nursing well since we've been home, but I am working on it, plus my milk supply dropped a bit too, so I've been working on bringing that back up too. He takes about 75% of his feeds with breastmilk and 25% by formula since we've gone through all the milk in the freezer. Still, not a big concern since he's growing well and still gets mostly breastmilk.
He's very active and social with naps in between and likes to be in bed before 7pm, sometimes by 6pm. He sleeps pretty good with waking up once or twice, of course I have to bug him with his drugs now and then, but he hardly wakes to take the bottles.
Big brother Bryan is adapting well and still loves to poke at him, but is gentle most of the time. He loves reading books with Luke, it's now a favorite activity. Right now he has his Grandma-Lynn here with him, which is like having a playmate for him. We've been working on getting things back together from our floors being done. They turned out great and are a very nice change from our old carpet.
We've had a few nurses stop in and visit, they are very sweet and good to Luke and us. Which, Luke payed a small visit at the NICU today with our follow-up appt's, it was nice to visit and then go home. We miss those wonderful people though.
For Jeremy and I, we just can't say how blessed we feel. Our family is under the same roof and we're still glowing from bringing Luke home. Each time I recount the miracles of Luke, I can't help, but get teary eyed. He definetly had other bigger hands on him from the begining, it's nice that we can see it, but it's really nice when everyone who's been involved with his care, see's it too.
Hope to write more often and post pictures soon too.
Melinda

Thurs. January 31st.

We've had an amazing last few days. We just keep staring at Luke and soaking him up under our own roof. Except today, we checked into the Residence Inn while our floors are finished in our home. I told Bryan it's a family adventure vacation, he liked the word "adventure". Luke is adjusting to home and we're adjusting to him. He sleeps pretty good which is helpful, he makes a lot of grunting and snorting sounds in his sleep.
He had his first doctors appt. with his regular pedatrician today and he's off to a good start, he has gained .5oz and weighs 13lbs 8oz. She's pleased with his great social skills. We'll keep working on improving his muscle tone. He needs some six pack abs, which we have a list of exercises from his physical therapist at Emanuel that we can do with him to help.
We can't believe today we're wraping up January, what a month it has been, a stressful month that has lead to great joy. We dreamt of the moment we would take Luke home and when it arrived, we were speechless. For me as his mom, walking out of that NICU door flooded me with emotion. The great staff at Emanuel made Luke and our family feel at home, as we were treated with such great respect and care, but at that moment I thought we don't have to share our baby with Emanuel anymore, he really is ours to take home. As a close friend of mine sent me a message this week seeing that Luke came home, she said "congratulations, it's a boy!". How right and perfect to say, as we really feel like we're starting out the beginging, the begining of having our littlest boy home.
Thank you all for your prayers and support, you are carrying us through as our journey continues on with Luke.
Melinda