AmberLee Hampshire November 26 at 4:27pm

It's been crazy since I found out Kingston was getting ready to come home. You think you are ready and then you realize you're not even close! He got to come home yesterday for Thanksgiving and It's been lovely! Exhausting but lovely. My mom came up to help and I'm so grateful for her! I don't know what I am going to do when she leaves tomorrow. I feel like i'm a mom/nurse. He has one medication that is given every 6 hrs and another every 8 and between that and bottle feeding and then giving the rest by pump over an hour and then cleaning it, i am constantly busy. By the time I'm done with one, it seems like its time to change him and start over. He also has a monitor that keeps beeping cuz his leads fall off. And dressing changes from his surgery twice a day (and he HATES that) it doesn't hurt him i think it just annoys him and makes him MAD. He is still on fortified breast milk with extra calories but it makes him get backed up and super gassy. I'm hoping we can take him off that soon. Other than that..which is just an adjustment and i'm sure i'll get used to it soon and not keep worrying i'm going to forget to give him something...it is so WONDERFUL to have him home! I love sleeping next to him (he's in his pack n play next to my bed) and I love walking around the house without having to be hooked up to anything. It's the best! :) He LOVED the car ride home too! I might have to drive around with him a lot. :) It still doesn't seem real yet that he's really home! HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! I'm sure you all know what i am thankful for this year. ;)

Leaving the Hospital. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Post surgery sucker.

Post surgery and still knocked out.

November 20th, 2010- Our 1st surgery

Well, Kingston had his first surgery yesterday. Everything went really well. He had a feeding tube inserted into his stomach and then had his circumcision. The worst part was that he had to be re-intubated. It was hard to see him on that machine again. After the surgeries they were able to extubate him (on the second try) and so far he has been able to stay off it. They put him on high flow (a little bit of oxygen) and will continue to wean him off while he recovers. The feeding tube is a little thinner than the size of a pencil. He will have it for 8 weeks and then it will get switched out for a little button. We will continue to work with him until he can take full feeds by mouth. Once he doesn't need the tube or button anymore we will have it removed. It will be so nice to get him home. He still doesn't take a lot by mouth but he is SLOWLY improving and as he gets bigger, stronger, and more comfortable I think he will take off! Now we just have to wait for him to recover from his surgeries and then we can leave. I think today will be the worst day. He can't have as much pain medication because it affects his respiratory so he is so uncomfortable and HUNGRY. They haven't fed him since yesterday morning at 5am. I hope they start feeding him again soon. He is getting fluids but he wants milk. He also wants held and his favorite position is on his tummy but while he is healing it makes it difficult. I held him for a little bit last night but he didn't seem very comfortable. (He likes to be held up against me and patted on his back which I was unable to do)

We're hoping to still go home next week as long as he is ready. (He likes to do everything on his own time and has his own plan which rarely is the same as anyone else's plan, so we'll see) :) Love, Amber

Eskimo Kingston

We met the neonatalogist today and talked about getting Kingston home. We are hoping to get him home for Thanksgiving weekend, which is looking good. He weighed in at 8 lbs tonight and is getting chunky.

November 7th, 2010

Well the little man is now 4 months old. kinda hard to believe. :) He's weighing in at about 7 1/2 lbs now. He's a little chunk. the docs just reduced his calorie intake from 27 cal. to 24. Hopefully that will help with some of his gas.

Here is the latest update:

Eyes: Regressing. Since he is fully off oxygen now his eyes have been cleared and aren't one of the things keeping him in the hospital anymore.

Breathing: He's getting better...a bit. They had to increase his theophalin levels but his A's and B's have been reduced. Once they are gone (which we keep hearing that he WILL EVENTUALLY grow out of them) we will just have to figure out the feeding. In the mean time, that is what we are working on.

Feeding: He has improved greatly over the last couple days- up to about 20-38 mls by mouth! It has been a VERY VERY slow process but I really do believe he will get it! If he is not taking more than 75% of his feeds by mouth when he is finally over his A's and B's, the doctors have recommended he get a g-tube (tube that is inserted into the stomach) so he can go home. At first the g-tube totally freaked me out but i've come to accept that this could be the outcome and tried to educate myself more about it and it's really not as bad as i thought...and that's after educating myself through the internet.. I know this is the worst way for seeking information, but we all still do it. He will only need it until he is eating completely by mouth and I really don't think that will be too long at all. The worst part about getting the g-tube is he would have to be reintubated and with his lungs that's kinda scary. The longer we wait and his lungs improve and he gets bigger, the quicker he will come back off them. And if it gets him home sooner, than I think it's worth it.

HOME...not sure how I will feel when that time comes or the adjustment it will be. To be honest it has me a little freaked out. At least in the hospital I can rely on the nurses and doctors watching over him 24-7 instead of being alone with him. I am Scared to death that something scary will happen and I won't know what to do. Especially at night. I don't know how I will be able to fall asleep and not worry something will happen while I'm sleeping and I won't wake up. I'm sure all first time parents feel this to some extent when they are bringing home their newborns but Kingston's had people watching over him his whole life and so I feel we have had help but when we go home, it's all on us and the help is gone. I just hope once we do get home we don't end up having to go back. We have had been in the hospital far too long. ~Amber