Praise God Always

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

We are all so quick to pray to God when we are in need of something, we beg him--then he answers our prayers and we forget to PRAISE him! I admit I have been guilty of this many times; even last week I found myself doing this. I try to pray on and off throughout the day & night; after Coy started doing better last week, I found myself daydreaming about other things instead of PRAISING GOD for what he had done. I kept begging him days before at every opportunity I had, but then suddenly I got what I wanted and was on to other things...lets all take a moment to THANK GOD for all your blessings! Yes, everyone has stresses in their life, but just be thankful for what you have today!

So, I am now PRAISING GOD for all he's given me; my wonderful husband, my family & friends, the awesome doctors and nurses in the NICU, and our beautiful baby boy! I am SO, SO thankful for him. He has brought tremendous joy into our lives; made us realize how blessed we are.

We had another good day with Coy. I was able to hold him for 4 hours! The first hour or so, Coy would not settle down; he kept squirming and kicking his legs into me; he then got into a comfortable position and fell asleep. He has been desating more than before, but they say this is expected of a baby of his gestational age. Of course it scares us (especially his grandmothers) when he does this, but hopefully soon he'll grow out of this. His blood gas wasn't where they wanted it last night, so they increased his ventilator rate to 35BPM. I was disappointed this morning, but I know this his part of the ride; three steps forward, two back. Overall, his respiratory function is good--please pray for continued healing and maturing of Coy's lungs. Pray that his oxygen requirement will be decreased; pray for his blood gases to improve!

His feedings were increased to 6cc every 3 hours! This is the most Coy has every taken! He tolerated his first two feeds while we were there, hopefully this continues through the night. Pray that Coy continues to digest his milk, that it nourishes his body, that he will gain weight! Pray against an infection called NEC that has a very bad prognosis for preemie babies. For Coy to be able to stop receiving IV fluids, he would need to be taking 15 cc every feeding. We are working that way! Pray that Coy will be on full feedings soon and his IV can be taken out!

Coy is still on his antibiotics and will stay on them until Wednesday. Thanks be to God for Coy's negative blood cultures! Please pray that he will remain infection free for the rest of his stay in the NICU.

His urine output has been just a little low over the past few days. It is just under the amount that the doctors consider "normal". Please pray that Coy's urine output remains stable and he his able to excrete fluids as he needs to...

Again, we are so thankful for all your thought and prayers!

The video below was made fo us by a friend! Enjoy!

sweet boy

Coy is such a sweet baby boy; we are so blessed to have him. Here is a photo I was able to snap yesterday with his eyes open.

Please continue to pray for Coy's healing! He had a good day! His feedings are now 4 cc every 3 hours; we need to increase this amount daily so he can get nice and plump!

quick update..

Sorry we didn't post last night---didn't leave the hospital until 10 pm; once we were home all the energy I had was used on eating, pumping, and playing with our other babies, Sugar Pie and Dixie...

So yesterday was more of the same for Coy. His oxygen requirement was a little up from the day before, but his NP said this could be due to weaning down on the ventilator----meaning Coy is having to work harder to breathe on his own. But it also depends on the nurse---some nurses are very conscious with the oxygen, others crank it up like there's no tomorrow. Coy does desat (the oxygenation of his blood will drop) at times, but he usually will come back on his own. I was frustrated yesterday when the nurse kept cranking him up on the oxygen every time he would desat. I finally just sat there by the ventilator and every time he would desat she would run over---I just nicely told her to "LEAVE THE OXYGEN ALONE!" It's hard for me to manage my emotions--am I being an overbearing/ concerned parent? or a controlling nurse? I would never want to tell the nurses how to do their job--that would have drove me crazy as a nurse, but I know my son so well, I know his habits and his trends, whether he's acting himself, etc. When she was done with her shift, he had gone from 67% to 48% oxygen--you see, if the oxygen stays high, it can damage his eyes..

So we stayed until 10 pm last night, Chris got to do Kangaroo care--Coy looked so sweet on his daddy. He kept opening his eyes---they are so beautiful! He is so precious!

When we called this morning, the nurse said he was doing fine--he did have a bad blood gas last night so they increased his rate to 25 BPM on the vent. Although I am disappointed, I know we don't want to stress the little man out--baby steps, baby steps.

Please pray today for Coy's lungs to mature! For his oxygen requirement to decrease! For all the nurses and doctors who work so hard in the NICU! Pray that Coy continues to tolerate all his feedings and that his urine output remains regulated!

Thanks to all and GOD BLESS!

1 Month Down!

"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2:2-3

Coy is 1 month old! Today he had another positive day. They were able to increase his feeds of breast milk from 1cc to 2cc's. We are told that getting him to tolerate his feedings and being able to increase the amount of milk is the next big hurdle. Please pray that Coy will love his mama's milk and his gut will remain free of infection.
Ann Marie got to have kangaroo time again today for 2 hours. Hopefully tomorrow daddy might get a chance to kangaroo, that is if mommy lets him.

I was asked today by a co-worker "when will we be able to relax and breathe easier about Coy's health." Unfortunately, doctors tell us that we can't rest easy until the day we get to bring our little man home. That is what makes this journey ultra challenging especially when we are told that the earliest we can expect to go home is our original due date, March 28th. We want to celebrate the good days but are afraid to get too excited because we've seen just how quickly things can change. Life in the NICU is full of surprises. We are doing our best to stay faithful and accompany that faith with action. When others are responsible for the care of your son it is somewhat difficult to know what action you can take. Right now our action is asking for your prayers, going to the hospital every day, pumping milk, kangarooing, questioning doctors about the gameplan, and monitoring the level of care he is receiving. We are open to any other suggestions!

So tonight we give thanks for Coy's continued improvement and pray for a streak of good days to come.

Specific prayer requests:

• That Coy will digest his milk and crave more
• That his stomach will remain infection free
• That his lungs, heart, eyes, brain, and kidney's will continue to mature
• That his urine output will stabalize
• That his cultures will remain negative
• That he will be able to come off the ventilator soon with minimal lung scar tissue
• That in the near future Coy will tolerate enough milk that he will no longer need his IV fluids

Yeah, for another GREAT day!

"Praise the Lord! For the Lord is good; sing praises to His name, for He is gracious and lovely!" Psalm 135:3

I am happy to report that Coy had ANOTHER good day! In the NICU world, you never know what the day will bring--so of course, we hold our breath every morning when we call to check on him. He had a good night last night--he continued to have good blood gases so they weaned his ventilator setting down more...if he continues to have good respiratory function and they can wean his vent down a little more (his rate is at 20 bpm, O2 at 25-35%, and pressure at 23), his NP (nurse practitioner) said there is a chance he could go to CPAP next week!!!!! That means he will be extubated (no more tube in his lungs) and breathing somewhat on his own!!! (to go to CPAP, he needs a rate of 20bpm, O2 in the 21-28%, pressure of 18) Of course, then his NP told me "baby steps, Ann Marie, baby steps." Yeah, I know, I try to not get too excited, but I think I have the right to dream! On Sunday night, Coy received two doses of a steroid (Hydrocortisone) for his hypotension (low BP)--since it improved his BP and secondly his lung function so dramatically, the docs ordered 6 more doses for Coy...this is the drug that Coy was enrolled in the study for (it ended a week ago, we are fairly sure that he got the placebo)...apparently, they cannot prescribe the drug for only poor lung function yet, just for hypotension...He has responded so well to it, I say GIVE IT to EVERY BABY!! I must give GLORY to the LORD for his wonderful works!

His nurse practitioner then said Coy's next big hurdle is his feedings---meaning he needs to tolerate all his feedings (he is feed via OG tube every 3 hours round the clock). Before they feed him, they hook a syringe to the end of his tube and pull back---if there is milk left in his stomach that was not digested, it is called residual--they evaluate the color of it and can tell if it's partially digested---anyway, we don't want residuals! We want Coy to digest all of his milk every 3 hours! He was started back on feeds today, but only a small amount to get him started--he did tolerate 2 feedings today! YEAH!

Of course, his renal function is always being evaluated since the little guy does like to hold it in for a few days at a time...well, not by choice..
So today, he was urinating just like he should be...he had massive amount of output for two days, now it is regulating..please continue to pray for Coy's renal function, that it will normalize, that he will be able to urinate as he needs to...

Coy did have a spinal tap this morning to screen for meningitis---doctor said they did not find any WBCs in the sample--PRAISE GOD--they are no longer concerned about meningitis...he will stay on antibiotics for another week...please continue to pray for Coy to stay infection free...the goal here is to get Coy on full feeds and off IV fluids & antibiotics so his IV can be removed...babies are at a much greater risk for infection as long as they have IVs...

He weighed 1 lb 12 oz tonight, smaller than I thought but still cute as ever...Coy and his little friend Kyle are the studs of the NICU (they both flirt with the nurses...)

Please pray for Coy's friend Kyle, that God will protect him from any seizures, that he will be FREE of any infections (he just finished 42 DAYS of antibiotics!), that he will tolerate all his feedings, that he will GROW like a WEED, that he will have no more A&Bs (apneas & bradycardias), that God will continue to give amazing strength to his parents and older brothers...

Prayer requests for Coy: that he will remain infection free, that he is pain free, that he tolerates his feedings!, that he continues to urinate just as he should, that his respiratory status continues to improve--that we can go to CPAP ASAP!!

"O taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him." Psalm 34:8

Thank God for another day!

"I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge." Psalm 18:1-2

Thanks be to God for another day! Chris and I were blessed this New Year's; we were able to spend another day with our little one! He had so much energy today! He was waving his arms around in his incubator all day! He is just so funny to watch! I can tell he was feeling better because he had more strength today---he was laying on his stomach with his head facing left, he was able to pick up this head and turn it all the way to the right...he's never done this before! Of course, he could have extubated himself, so he really shouldn't do that, but it was good to see his strength. So, Coy had another good day...

His blood gases were "great" last night---they were able to wean his ventilator down to 20 BPM---this is really good! His oxygen requirement also decreased from 60% to 30-40%--again, really good! Please pray that his respiratory status continues to improve! Pray Coy can be changed to CPAP instead of the ventilator soon!

He continued to urinate at a steady rate today---please pray this continues! He was back to his normal size--last night he weighed in at 2 lbs, however, he still had some fluid on him. I imagine tomorrow he will probably weigh around 1 lb 14 oz--please pray that Coy will continue to grow at a steady rate...

Please pray that he stays infection free! Pray against meningitis; pray that his body will tolerate another week of antibiotics...

Please pray tonight for a family we weren't able to meet; a baby was delivered today at 25 weeks, he was being brought to a bed close to Coy's; the baby died in transport..please pray for this family who is grieving this loss

We are so thankful and love you all!

Happy New Year!

"With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation." Psalm 91:16
Happy New Year! Thanks to everyone for all the kind words! It truly means more to us than you can imagine! We feel so incredibly blessed to have such wonderful support!

We must praise the Lord because he has shown us his presence in amazing ways today! Coy began urinating this morning! (He has had VERY low urine output since last Thursday; he gained 5 oz of "water weight" and looked very puffy) Once he started urinating, it just kept coming! This is great because he needed to get ALOT of fluid off his little body. When I walked in and saw him today, he looked AMAZING! He was so precious! He was not nearly as edematous as he was on Sunday and looked so comfortable. Please pray that Coy can stabilize his urine output; that he doesn't urinate ALL the fluid out of his body; that his electrolytes stay in range

Last night Coy's blood pressure began to drop; this usually puts the doctors into panic mode---they would much rather see high blood pressure than low--so Coy was started on another blood pressure medication. He did not respond to this medication so he was given 2 steroid injections---this worked! Praise God! His blood pressure stabilized and has been exactly where it should be all day! We are so thankful for this. Hopefully he can be weaned off the two blood pressure medications soon! Please pray for Coy's blood pressure to remain good!

Please praise the Lord tonight for Coy's negative blood cultures! Yes, for the past 4days, we've had negative cultures! This is wonderful! Coy's attending doctors and nurse practitioners believe the infection stemed from his old PICC (central) line that was taken out last week (he has since had a new one placed). The consulting Infectious Disease doctors however want Coy tested for meningitis and recommend he stay on antibiotics for 6 weeks! Yuck! If Coy's attending docs agree with these ID guys, he may have a spinal tap this week--however they are only ordering 2 weeks of antibiotics, not 6! Please pray for Coy to remain infection free, that he does not have any form of meningitis, that his body will tolerate antibiotics for 2 weeks.

Please also pray for Coy's lung function! Last night, his blood gases were pretty crummy. The pH of his blood dropped steadily over the night (which is another thing that really gets the doctors squirming) His CO2 level was good--so his low pH was not due to his respiratory function, but rather from all the fluid he was maintaining. He was given some sodium bicarb which he seemed to respond to. His blood gases today were "perfect" according to his nurse and he was weaned down on the ventilator!! His oxygen requirement was also down from 60-70% to 45% when we left him tonight! Please pray that his lung function continues to improve; that his lung tissue is maturing; that Coy will be weaned of the ventilator as soon as possible!!

Please continue to pray! God is here; he is working on our little man! "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24

Coy had a few rough days in a row. Chris and I were talking tonight about just how fast things can change in the NICU. One day we are thinking we have this all figured out, the next day the doctors are calling Coy "unstable." (BAD WORD to say to a mom!) I have been really questioning my faith this week; I have been wavering. Today I feel like a spoiled child--here I was questioning him and look what he's done for Coy! We are so blessed!