April 24th - Day 40

Hello all!

It has been a crazy roller coaster ride with Omari the last few weeks. Last week my wife and I noticed that Omari was not acting like himself. So we brought it to the attention of the Doctors and nurses, and they said it was nothing. Then last week I recieved a phone call from work saying that Omari stopped breathing several times. The nurse taking care of him noticed his faced was pail, and according to the monitors his breathing was really shallow. Well, I lefted work and my wife and I immediately went up there. The morning nurse argued and said that he was fine and that he always looked and acted like that. We argured continously with the doctor. The doctor then agreed to take some blood, urine, and spinal tap samples. Meanwhile give him a broad mixture of antibiotics. The bad thing was that the entire time they was getting samples, he was stuck with a needle about 15-20 times unsuccessfully. He simply was not crying, moving, or showed any life what so ever.

But later the next day or so, we began to notice some progress. BUT, the doctors said that Omari had Ecoli, then they changed it and said it was worse.... A staph infection. So he is currently being treated as we speak, and they will know if its gone in the next few days. They found the infection in his blood, and urine. They spinal tap came back negitive, they said the infection could be there as well, but just hasnt flourished enough. But as of now, he seems to be 100% better, and is more vibrant than ever. He is offically 32 weeks old, and is a WHOPPING 3.8lbs!

April 16th - ONE MONTH OLD!!!

OMARI IS 1 MONTH OLD TODAY!!!

It has been 1 month already. Time has gone slow day by day, but once we reflect on those slow days they seem to have gone so fast. Omari is now 3lbs! We are really excited about it. The strange thing is that no matter how much people told us that things would be alright, there was always some thought that may have lead us to believe otherwise. Our absolute thanks goes out to everyone for there prayers and gifts. They were not over looked.

He still tends to forget to breath every so often. Maybe close to 12-16 times per day. Over the last day that has decreased drastically and they hope the trend will continue. His physical therapy still continues to do well and he is more feisty than ever. They increased his feedings to 25mls. They will take him out of the incubator within a few weeks. He will remain out as long as he can keep his own body temperature. The doctors say that he already does, but doing so causes him to burn energy that should be used to help him grow. So the longer they can manually keep him warm, he can put more energy towards growing.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW, he smiles at the end... TOO CUTE!

April 8th - Day 24

Hello World!

God is absolutely wonderful. Sometimes it takes the smallest things in life to remind us of that fact. Well... Yesterday Pastor Johnathan and my family drop in for a visit to see Omari. All was well..... we talked.... we laughed. Soon after Pastor Johnathan left, that's when God saw fit to give me his ultimate test........ CHANGE A DIRTY DIAPER. And my friend, when I say dirty, I absolutely mean D I R T Y!!! I didn't think it would be that bad, but boy was I completely wrong. Everything started out perfectly fine. Took the diaper off, started wiping him down. Then it happened! What every diaper changer fears the most! I know what your thinking....PEE. But no! Even I wouldn't be that lucky. This young man shot out POOP that only a grown man should produce! It only took a matter of ONE second before he had created a mess that would take me and the nurse ONE hour to clean up. The messed up part about it is that I had a steam of poo on my index finger that reminded me of mustard on a bratsworth! I will NEVER VIEW A HOT DOG THE SAME... EVER....EVER AGAIN!

Besides that, here is the good news. He began physical therapy a few days ago. This will ensure he has his full range of motion before being sent home. Also his has graduated from NAKEDNESS to a beautiful white sleeper, that I'm more than sure he will ruin..lol. He is still 2.7lbs and hopefully this will change by tomorrow. Checkout his new pic of today and a video of my wife successfully changing his diaper. Oh yea.. they raised his feeding to 22mls every 3 hours! YAY!

WATCH THIS VIDEO ALL THE WAY TO THE END. WHEN THE VIDEO STOPS YOU WILL SEE OMARI LIFT HIS HANDS TO PRAISE THE LORD!!!

April 5th - Day 21

Hello all! My apologies for the delay in posting. I went back to work last week, and working 12-15 hours per day plus being at the hospital. Thats defiantly a recipe for sleep! Anyway, nothing has really changed with Omari. Well... there were some good changes. He is still virsus and infection free. He has gained some more weight. He now weighs 2.7lbs. Also they increased his feedings quit a bit since my last few postings. He is now receiving 22ml every 3 hours. I was able to hold him for the first time yesterday. It was SOOO SCARY!! He cried in like.... I dont know..... 2 MINUTES! Shows what parenting skills I have lol. My wife held him today for about 20 minutes. He is holding his body tempature on his own very well so far.

OH YEA... It was unamimously voted amongst the nursing staff to upgrade his diaper size to new born. When we called to check on him, we were told that he had BIG POOPS. I have 3 words for ya.... THATS MY BOY!

Checkout this video of him from today posted below!

March 28th - Day 13

This has thus far been the easiest week with Omari. He is now 2 weeks old and is simply a joy to have around. He's become more active this week. Crying randomly throughout the day, pulling his breathing tube out of his nose, and sucking his BINKY! Yes.... I said binky. Besides his regular feeding schedule, the nurses and Terri knows exactly when he is hungry. If you watch him he will start to suck on his feeding tube in his mouth. Once food goes through the feeding tube you'll see him doing a sucking reflex. Two words... TOO ADORABLE. They increased his milk dosage from 10mls every 3 hours to 12mls every 3 hours. The picture to the left is from Friday evening.

The doctors have said that he has passed the toughest time which was the first 7-10 days. I will be returning to work this Tuesday. I am dreading it, but will go with joy in my heart. Thank you for all the love and support, talk to you guys at church or the next post.

March 24th - Day 9

Over the last few days Omari has had a few issues.  They were concern with his blood cell counts. Therefore had to due another blood transfusion today, they say he will require more in the future. Everything is stable now, although his sodium level is a bit high. Terri was allowed to hold him yesterday for about 15 minutes. Simply stated, my wife fell in love with another man. Its okay though, because I fell in love as well. From the video and pics above, you can tell that he has gain a little weight. He has offically gained back the weight he lost after birth plus a little more. He is now 2.2 lbs as of 11pm tonite. They said some of the weight came from his blood transfusion. Praise God either way!

The doctors said that he is doing exceptionally well. He is surpassing there expectations. So lets be in prayer that God will continue to do so.

March 23rd - Day 7

Omari is doing wonderful. God has really eased my wife and I worries. We spent
the first while just being frantic and panicking about every little thing. Heres
the update over the last few days.

- He was took off ventilation a few days ago, now he is officially off the
breathing machine. That means the machine went from breathing for him 10 times
per minute, to him not even needing it at all.

- His heart and stomach sonograms came back perfect. They will be checking
this weekly for problems.

- He will officially be on DISABILITY the first year of his life. Past that
they will check him to see how he is coming along.

- He went from getting feed 2ml every 6hours Saturday, to being feed 4ml
every 3hours Sunday. Now he is being feed 6ml every 3hours. They are EXTREMELY
proud of him. His current weight is still 1.14 lbs. They suspect him to gain
lots of weight with the increase of milk.

- He still has an IV line that is running him certain vitamins. His potassium
was really high but they successfully got it back down. Now his sodium levels
are really low. So the IV is being feed Saline to boost it back up within the
next few hours. They also took out his blood IV line from his belly button, and
he is able to lay on his stomach. This was a big factor in helping his breathing
since laying on your back can shorten your breath.

Over all, he looks much better without all of the hoses coming out of his
face. Here is the important thing to pray about. The Doctor said that things may
look good now, but they can turn for the worst very quickly. He is still in
danger of infections and viruses. So lets pray that God will keep his body free
of those things. God's hand over Omari is clearly being seen through the Doctors
and nurses. Gods presence is evident when we joint hands and pray for him out
loud in his room. While other parents may not be Christians, we pray for all the
babies here. Some are in much harsher circumstances than ours, and we are
thankful for what God is doing. Lets rejoice and praise him for everything, especially
our beautiful, funny, talented, and sassy children. For we once were as well.