Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Update #2

Brighton is now gaining weight and is currently at 5 lbs. 8 oz. He got as small as 5 lbs. 5 oz. It is great that he is gaining weight as this is something else he has to check off his list in order to come home. He has also started nursing with me. I can nurse him twice a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. He is currently feeding 8 times a day through a tube, but now two of them I get to attempt to feed him. I love it! He eats 50 ml of my milk each feeding. How his feedings with me work is, first I feed him then they see how much he got from nursing, then they finish his feeding with a syringe. He needs to get up to the full 50 ml. Currently he is taking about 15 ml from me. It's a good start, but progress (like they told me a million times) will be slow. He is great at nursing, it just tires him out quickly. It's nice being able to feed him, though. I've been pumping for the rest of his meals, which has been very successful.
They've been surprised by my milk supply... I have a lot. I think this is because it's my second child and I still breastfeed Lila. I know! She's almost two. My goal was to have her done by the time she was two and then I'd be ready for Brighton, but of course plans changed. So even though I said I was not going to tandem feed, I guess that's what I'm currently doing. I still plan on having her weaned soon. We'll see how long it ends up taking. It's fine though, she's actually been really good about it. She only asks once a day and I just make sure that I have already pumped before I let her.
Anyway, so all in all Brighton is doing very well. There has only been improvement since the beginning, but I am slightly impatient. I just can't wait until he has no cords all over him and I can just have him at home. I am extremely grateful to the nurses and my pediatrician, they are amazing!
Sometimes I get tired and just wish that he were home, but then I just remind myself that he is at least healthy. We really are a very blessed family and Brighton is just another beautiful blessing for us.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Brighton Update

The baby boy is doing well. He was moved into what they call an isolette to help him grow. Brighton has been able to breathe on his own and maintain his body temperature, but he wasn't able to gain weight. They said that everything is a stimulant to him right now because he's used to the environment in the womb. So noise, light, temperature, is all affecting him. This is causing him to burn calories just to breathe and stay warm. To help with this, they put him in the isolette and gave him oxygen last night. He is doing great and actually gained an ounce today. Yay! So now we know that he can breathe on his own, maintain his temperature AND gain weight, but he can't do all of them at once and he hasn't learned to feed through his mouth. Slowly but surely he is coming along. It has been so fun to see how far he's come in just the few days he's been with us. We love the little boy so much!

My handsome baby. :) 

Here he is in the isolette.

 He can wear clothes now because he doesn't have an IV.
 

Sorry for the bad picture quality... it's with my phone and it's best that the light is dim for him to grow. 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

He Came In With a Bang...

... well maybe more like a splash!

Brighton Noel Pratt was born Monday, May 20, 2013 at 1:13 p.m. He was 33 weeks and 6 days making him 6 weeks early.  He is a big boy weighing in at 6 lbs. 2 oz. (currently 5 1/2 lbs.) and 18.5 inches.  Here's the story...

At about 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning I woke up with contractions. They were painful/bothersome, but not too regular and I didn't think too much of them as I was only 33 weeks 6 days pregnant. The contractions persisted throughout the next few hours and so at 5:00 I decided I would probably need to stay home from work. I went in to work to write my sub plans. While driving there, working on my plans, and driving back home I noticed that the contractions were getting stronger and more regular, about every 4 minutes or so. When I got home around 8:00 I told my husband we should probably go to the hospital. Lila, my first child, had tried to come at 34 weeks as well, but they were able to stop it so I thought that would be what would happen again. Well, when they checked me at about 8:30 they said I was already dilated to 5 cm and fully effaced so the likelihood of stopping this labor was not very good. I couldn't believe it. I went from thinking that they were just a few bad braxton hicks to realizing I was going to have a premature baby. They tried slowing the labor down and stopping it altogether, but were unable to. At 1:11 p.m. they asked me to start pushing and by 1:13 p.m. Brighton was out. That's right! It took less than 3 minutes total and only a few pushes to get him out. I was grateful. Being only 33 weeks 6 days they normally would transfer him to UV, but they left the decision up to my pediatrician who wanted to observe him first. 

Although he was less than 34 weeks, he was a big boy at 6 lbs. 2 oz. and pretty strong. He was observed throughout Monday night and was on oxygen as his lungs weren't quite strong enough on their own. In the middle of Monday night they took him off oxygen and he is breathing perfectly fine on his own. He now can also maintain his own body temperature. He is doing amazingly well and progressing beautifully. We are so blessed to have this little miracle in our lives. It's going to be a LONG couple of weeks, but he's healthy. I just hope I can survive the next few weeks at the hospital and being there for feedings every 3 hours (when it gets to that point). I really look forward to just having him home. Lila hasn't yet been able to formally meet him as she is under two and hasn't had all of her immunizations. It's okay though, she has loved looking at him through the window. She still doesn't fully understand everything that is going on. 

He basically only has the "feeder/grower" stage left to make it through. He just needs to learn how to eat on his own. While this is all that he has left, it's a slow stage because they have to be careful pushing him too hard. It's still a few weeks in the hospital for us, but he is a healthy little man. 

It's been an amazing experience already with Brighton and we couldn't be happier! He is a wonderful little boy and a great addition to our family. We love you baby Brighton.




Oh... and to explain the "splash" part... it was just my amniotic fluid going everywhere when he came out. Sorry for the mental picture. ;)

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Park City

It's 3:30 in the morning and I just can't sleep, so I figured I would blog about our weekend. 

For our 5th anniversary, Micah surprised me with a weekend getaway to Park City. (I knew about it before we actually left so I could help prepare for it, but he made all of the plans.) We stayed at the Westgate Resort and it was SO nice. Our room was a villa, so it had a separate front room and kitchen. The bathroom was huge and the tub was amazing. It was so nice to relax in and let me feel a little bit weightless for a weekend. 

We ate some great food at different places, went around Park City and saw Iron Man 3. It was really good, so if you want to see it, go. It was really nice just getting out of town and relaxing with just Micah for a weekend. I could literally feel all of the stress of the end of the school year and life, melting away. 

**On a quick side note, I missed Lila like crazy because I've never been away from her before. Micah missed her a lot too, so we were excited to come home. It was nice, however, that it was just the two of us for a weekend. Thanks family for watching her!

I had an amazing time and I'm so grateful that I have such a wonderful and thoughtful husband. He really is the best and I've been so spoiled having him in my life. I LOVE YOU, Micah!

Here are a few pics from the weekend. 


I want a tub just like this in my house!



I thought I'd slip this in... I'm about 32 weeks. 

These robes were amazing, but there was a $150 fee for taking them, so... ;)

It was hard to get a picture of the whole hotel. 


One more random, unrelated photo- of Lila... 
She loves to wear our giant cupcake pan on her head as a hat.
She's so silly.




Thursday, May 2, 2013

5 Years Today

Well, this is Micah. I rarely post on this blog, but today is our anniversary. We've been married 5 years today. (So have Megan and Pottsy. Them in Salt Lake I think, and us in Manti. Congrats folks!)

Well, life hasn't gone exactly to plan in our marriage, but we have been tremendously blessed. Certainly, we cannot justify complaining. We are not done pursuing our goals, but we've been blessed so far.

We're getting away for our anniversary for a couple of nights, and Lila (and the house) will be watched by family. We're just going to Park City, but we'll be in a glorious luxury villa. Park City is where we went for our honeymoon, and we've been there again for a previous anniversary. We enjoy it because it's close to home, so we don't spend a ton on travel expenses, and it's not crazy jammed with the tourists this time of year. Getting a table at a restaurant isn't even hard. And because the skiing season's over, all the rooms are at excellent prices. It's the sort of place that's stress free. Travel is stressful to me. I'm a logistics nut, and the logistics of travel bug me. I love small and simple vacations. A hotel room, some dinners, movies, sleeping in, pools, hot tubs, the beach. I don't go on vacation to do stuff. I go on vacation to do nothing at all, and love every moment of it. My nightmare is stuff like Disneyland. Fly there, rent a car, big crowds, pay loads of cash to go wait in line for stuff I don't want to do, and just spend a ton of money to not necessarily have a good time. People say it's for the kids. Blah blah blah. I was a kid once. You know what I loved? I loved my folks renting a beach house or hotel room and then fishing off the docks or the jettys, swimming in the surf, goin to the pool, playing ball, playing video games, staying up late, playing Monopoly, and bbqing with the family. My idea of a relaxing vacation will never be Disneyland or any kind of vacation that does not permit me to veg out or be some variation of a beach bum. We had a fantastic vacation to Surfside with my family last year. And the vacations we've loved with her family have been similar. We were in some big house in Park City for New Year, or in the mansion down in Hurricane swimming in the pool, riding dirt bikes and 4 wheelers, and bbqing. Ballerific.

Anyway, I'm excited that my wife (and I) will be able to relax for a couple of days before baby #2 comes. My wife needed a break before this next one came. If we didn't squeeze it in now, it wouldn't happen for another year until the new baby was a little older.

I love my wife. She is so dedicated to her family. She is always trying to please me. She is always trying to serve her daughter and teach her and provide fun experiences for her. Louisa is so warm, caring, forgiving, and committed. We have great communication. I trust her. I admire her. I hope our children become like her. We have only been as happy as we have been as a family because of her. She and Lila are my world. We're only 5 years into an eternity, but hopefully the Lord will see it fit for us to have a long long time together in this life. I have much still to learn from her and the Lord. I sincerely look forward to our time together everyday. Ruby Tuesday and sleeping in here we come!