Fridays are always a little nerve-racking. That's the day the ultrasound machine makes its way around the NICU. They do the scans in the morning and then send the pictures to the radiologists for an interpretation. This normally takes all day and the reports don't make it back to the NICU until late afternoon, at least.

The doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners in the NICU are great. But, many times, they are trying to relay information from conversations that the radiologists had with various other doctors. So, the details of the scan results often get lost in translation.

As a result, we've decided to rely on one person and one person only, for our scan information. That person is the neurosurgeon, Dr. George. He looks at the pictures himself and formulates his own interpretation. He's the brain doctor and the guy in charge of that part of Miller's continuing treatment. Dr. George called late yesterday afternoon an relayed the following:

Miller's bleed is resolving as he expected. Whenever there is a bleed in the body, blood coagulates and a clot forms. The small clot in Miller head is dissipating and the scan showed signs of that. There are still a number of things that we'll need to watch over the course of the next few scans, but this one showed us nothing that we need to be immediately concerned about. At some point, we'll send Miller down for an MRI. But for now, the plan is to hold tight and hope his injury continues to resolve itself.

Again, it's impossible to predict the long term effects of his bleed. It could have very minor signifigance on his development, or it could create major hurdles. The important thing for us is that it seems to be resolving and stable. We hope that continues. And, at the moment, the rest of his course is going well. He's eating, breathing, has no infections, and is growing!

As always, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We love reading your comments and emails, and your prayers are as important as the doctors.

Love,
Danny & Stephanie

Miller's a pro Kangaroo-er. Mom had another strong, two session day with him on Wednesday. He's up to 2 pounds, eleven ounces so he's still on the weight gain train. The nurses have increased his milk volume to 25 cc's every three hours.

Miller started having a little reflux. It's the acid kind that you see commercials about. Reflux is very common in pre-terms because the muscles near the bottom of the esophagus are not fully developed. These are the muscles that "squeeze" intermittently to help keep stomach liquids from creeping back up and causing the baby to spit up. To combat this, the nurses are using a pump to give him his milk. Previously, Miller would receive his meals "gravitationally" through a feeding tube. They'd hang a batch of milk from the top of his crib and it would gradually empty into his stomach. Now, they're using a pump ( like you'd use for an IV ) to regulate how fast his food gets delivered. He'll still spit up a little bit from time to time, but he's still on track with his feedings.

Dr. George, the Neurosurgeon, is expected in the NICU in the next couple of days and he'll perform an evaluation on Miller. It probably won't tell us much, but it will give mom and dad some needed face time with the expert.

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. Our little guy is hanging in there.

Love
Danny & Stephanie

So we don't really have much to report today which is just fine wth us. Miller had a good day with two kangaroos that lasted over an hour each. His color is really good and he's very alert...probably something to do with his blood transfusion from the other day. His digestive system is really starting to work and we're getting stinkers a couple of times a day now. Who would have thought we'd be getting so excited over some seriously stinky diapers? Dad missed out on the visits today because he wasn't feeling 100%. We're just not taking any chances.

Today we got lucky with the dream team. We have a few nurses that we are partial to and most of them were there today at some point. The level of care he receives at Seton is amazing, but it is even superceded on days when he has certain nurses. This is one of the main reasons we are able to sleep at night. We hope we don't drive them crazy with the little game of 20 (million) questions we like to play.

Mom and Dad are doing well too. We are starting to adjust to the NICU lifestyle, planning everything around visiting hours and pumping. For now, this is our new normal.

With the move, we may not be able to post for the next day or two. But if anything noteworthy happens, we will find a way.

Sweet Dreams

Miller had a great weekend. We all did.
On Saturday we had our first March of Dimes WalkAmerica event. It was cool to see so many NICU grads and their parents with their own special team shirts. None were as great as ours of course (thanks Grampaw Peoples and Uncle JP!). We wouldn't recommend the DJ for your wedding, but you could say some of the song selections were, umm, entertaining (We Built This City, Eye of the Tiger, Rumpshaker, to name a few). We were mostly moved by the team Aunt Michelle put together and the participation/sponsorship of so many of our friends and family in such a short time. Our team goal was more than doubled (over $2000.00)...way to go Team Miller Lee! A great big THANK YOU to all who participated.

As you may have begun to notice, in the NICU everything has a domino effect. This weekend it worked in our favor. Miller's PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) was removed on Saturday. This is the IV that was threaded into an artery for long-term venous access. For Miller it was used to deliver nutrients and fat (respectively referred to as 'baby gatorade' & 'fried chicken') to sustain him, in addition to insulin. Now that he's beyond 21 cc's of momma's milk every 3 hours (today he was up to 24), he no longer needs the baby gatorade or the fried chicken. This also means he no longer needs insulin either since it was used to balance out the glucose in the baby gatorade. What a wonderful Mother's Day gift...to be able to sustain our sweet little one on momma's milk...with a few extra calories added of course! Another benefit to the removal of the PICC line is dodging CRBSI-catheter related bloodstream infections. This is a major concern when dealing with PICC's.

Momma also had her baby shower on Saturday. She was nervous that she'd be emotional since normally baby showers are held before the baby comes. But after almost three weeks since the Miller Bear surprised us with his arrival, it was definitely time to step out and visit with some of her nearest and dearest. The party was beautiful, but she came home feeling showered with much more than gifts...

Today Miller is three weeks old. In this short time we have already reached so many milestones and taken a trip or two around the track of that awful roller coaster they refer to in the NICU. We know we have a long way to go, but we are really learning to slow down and appreciate the little things. Last night, after a nice long kangaroo session, Miller finally found a way to shove all of his fingers into his mouth and chomp away. This may not seem like a big deal, but he's been trying to do this since he was born (and the nurses told us he was not trying to do this...ha!).

We hope all the momma's had a wonderful Mother's Day!

All our love,

Danny & Stephanie