Day 5

Day 5 in the NICU was a much better day for all of us. I guess I should speak for Logan and myself. Brandon had a long night here with Logan and was dragging this morning. Logan is awake more at night and is more alert so seems to be more opinionated.

Fewer visitors and less testing today. The brain doctor, blood doctor and occupational therapist all had good reports today. And the best news is that we had some success with nursing today. It is a slow learning process but Logan now gets the idea and just needs to work on nursing for more than a couple minutes so he doesn't need a feeding tube to get 2/3 of his meal. He tends to get sleepy or loose interest quickly.

Tomorrow the IV will be taken out of his belly button and he will be put in a normal crib. Once they are confident Logan can regulate his own body temperature, is continuing to gain weight and can get a full meal in on his own I think we will start discussing discharge.

Brandon and I are getting more antsy to go home. We know the day is drawing near as Logan is constantly making progress but having our family separated, figuring out logistics everyday, lack of sleep and spending so much time in a dark room is wearing on us. We continue to be thankful for all of the support from our parents, friends and family. I have not been too responsive on an individual basis but please know I read every text, listen to every voicemail, look at all the likes and comments on Facebook and feel blanketed in prayer.

We broke the NICU rules and both grandmas have gotten to hold Logan.
I think he likes them but has no idea how blessed he is yet to have them.

Have you met Logan's cousin Ella yet? She was born on June 13th!

Peace,
Lynn

The Results are in

Today was another busy day for baby Logan, I can't even remember all the people that came to visit, 3 different nurses, a hematologist, an occupational therapist, our pediatrician, two or three people to set up the EEG, someone to do an echo on Logan's heart (he passed), someone to do online bill setup, someone to take blood from Logan's heel, and most important of all the main neurologist to give the results of Logan's MRI. The results did show two areas of injury in Logan's brain where two small strokes might have happened. The good thing is that there are many results that they didn't want to see that would clearly show results (clear results with neurologists usually mean really bad things). So our results are positive in that they don't know and can't tell what if any long term effects Logan will have. We will have to continue monitoring him as he grows and hopefully his baby brain will reroute around the injured parts as he grows. We are grateful and thankful that our little baby boy will continue to grow and learn and be a blessing to this world and to our family. Thank you everyone for the continued support and prayers. The next step before we can go home is the Logan needs to learn how to eat and swallow which can take a little longer for babies that have been chilled, but mommy and Logan are hard at work and Logan is already making progress. We got to take our first Family photo and I got one with my boys. Hopefully soon we will be able to be together as a family in our home.

On a very different note I just want to thank the Calvary Chaos softball team for some very needed relaxation and a good reminder that living life with a community is a breath of fresh air to my soul. It did help that we 10 runned the other team and the team awarded me the batting trophy for the week. As it will go down in legend, I stepped up to the plate and said "this ones for Logan" as I pointed my bat to the outfield, then came the pitch and the ball sailed over the left fielders head as I rounded all the bases, HOME RUN!! (note the part about dedicating the shot to Logan and the pointing to the outfield might be embellishments, but the home run did happen).

Love from the camp family,
Brandon

The way it should be

Though the timeline got pushed back a bit today, I was able to hold my baby again today around 8:30pm. Feeling like I was going on a first date, not knowing what to wear or if Logan would like me, I was a bit nervous all day. But he seemed to know as much as I did that being held by his momma is the way it should be. He was a little upset when he came back from the MRI but settled down once we talked, took a pacifier and eventually was given to me... he has been calm ever since.

We FaceTimed with Brandon and Ethan when I first got to hold Logan.
Can you see Logan's little mullet? Not much hair on top but thicker and
longer around the sides and back.  (-:

Logan was awake and just cuddled with me for a bit and then he started looking for some food. I have to wait until the morning to nurse so a speech pathologist can listen in to ensure he is swallowing correctly. But Logan has now had three meals via a tube through his nose and seems to be doing ok with it. While another blood transfusion was given to him, I changed his diaper and cut his finger nails...funny how I will not take those occasions for granted as much going forward. We cuddled for another hour and a half after the transfusion and both drifted off to sleep. Now he is sleeping soundly in his warm bed and I have been trying to do the same.

Praise again for everything going so well today. Prayers for nursing tomorrow, good MRI results which we will find out in the morning and some rest for mom. Doctors are skeptical about how long it will take him to learn how to nurse-I'm optimistic but am trying to manage my expectations better and not expect to go home tomorrow.

Great day today - exciting day tomorrow!

Thank you to all who have been praying for Logan and our family. God is answering them! Time has flown by, we have felt much peace, Logan is doing so well and in 20 hours or so we will get to hold our son again! Well, Brandon and I might need to wait in line - Ethan thought that he would be the first one to hold Logan today..."because I love him" he said.

Brandon and Logan both slept well last night after some awake time. Logan was very content during that three hour period and the boys had some good bonding time. When I arrived this morning the neurologist had been there and said everything looked very normal and she thought it was unlikely that anything would show up on the MRI tomorrow. However, if the MRI does show some damage she said that a baby's brain can reroute and adapt well. Amazing!

Logan's healthy brain activity.

So tomorrow is a big day. Here is the current plan: around 12:30 they will start warming Logan up and monitor him closely. Once warmed we can hold him and I can try to nurse before he goes to his MRI at 5:00pm. This is a 45 minute procedure that will probably not be much fun. From then on we should be able to hold him until he is ready to go home. Departure time will likely not be Tuesday and depends on when he has learned to nurse and the results of the MRI which we should know by Tuesday morning at the latest.

Please lift up a word of praise for all of the answered prayers so far. Our prayers now are that he bonds well with us, picks up nursing quickly and that only black shows up on the MRI (I guess black is good and white is not so good).

Brandon and Ethan had some good quality time today eating lunch and wrestling.
Ethan and I have also had some good time together reading stories and getting pushed
around in the wheelchair at the hospital.

Good night friends. Thank you for loving me.

With much gratitude!
Lynn

Welcome Logan!

Brandon, Ethan and I are very excited to announce the birth of Logan David Camp to the world! Our little guy was born on Friday 6/20/14 (his due date) at 9:59am at Health Foundations Birth Center. He is beautiful and we have once again stood in awe of creation as we observed first hand Logan’s miraculous birth. Conception and birth in and of themselves are miraculous but the Lord’s mighty hand was even more apparent on Friday. 

After laboring at home for 9 hours or so we headed to the birth center once contractions were closer together and stronger. Arriving around 8:30 with our doula, Sibyl, it was quickly confirmed that this labor was the real thing. I expected the final stages of labor to take a little longer than they actually did. My water broke during during a contraction which felt like a balloon popping and three minutes later I had a contraction so strong and long that our baby’s whole head came out even though I was trying to hold it back per the instruction of our midwife, Monica. I then pushed the rest of the body out and as the baby was handed to me I saw right away that it was a BOY! A very pale boy that was not moving. 

I was instructed to get out of the tub right away and moved to the bed where a PPV was used to help our baby boy start breathing. I then got to hold him and talk to him while he was given oxygen and checked out further. Though he was breathing and his heart rate was good, he was still very pale, his cry was very weak and he was not moving much. Monica calmly informed us that he needed more attention and that she was going to call an ambulance so he could be transported to Children’s Hospital not more than a few miles away in St. Paul. A fire truck arrived with an ambulance right behind. At least 6 emergency responders came into the birth room, got some quick instructions and took our baby away. Brandon held him in the ambulance and was accompanied by our nurse Carrie. I had to stay as I had just given birth 20 minutes earlier and needed a little more recovery time before I could go anywhere. Our handling complications class had instructed us that this would be the process so I was as prepared as anyone could be in this situation to know that Logan and I would have to part for a while. Logan David, though this was the name I thought we had decided on, I was hesitant to make it official as Brandon and I didn't get to discuss and confirm prior to his departure. A few hours later, Brandon confirmed that he had been calling him Logan at the hospital and that it was official. There is no specific meaning that made us choose Logan - we just really liked that name. David is my dad’s name which means beloved. My dad is the most loving, kind, humble, thoughtful man I know. I hope Logan gets to know him well and sees him as a role model for the man of God I hope he will want to become as well. 

Brandon may have to fill in some details here and I hope I am repeating what I have been told accurately. From what I understand the ER quickly sent Logan to the NICU. After quick blood tests it was determined that he was acidotic meaning there was acid in his blood resulting from low blood volume. Birth center and hospital staff are thinking Logan started losing blood through a small tear in the placenta that might have occurred sometime toward the very end of labor. There were no indications that anything was wrong during pregnancy or through the majority of labor. Acidosis can cause injury to organs, the biggest concern being the brain. To slow and stop any injury a new treatment found to be very successful is to cool the body temperature down for 72 hours. So along with getting a blood transfusion, some frozen plasma and a few other things, Logan was put on a cooling blanket where he currently is and will be until Monday around noon. He will then be slowly warmed up and will have an MRI to help determine the extent of any injury. He's about halfway through the treatment and has had great reports from nurses, doctors, neurologists, and family. His color is better, his reactions to things that are uncomfortable (like being cold) are good signs, the brain monitoring has not shown any signs of seizure, he is off oxygen and some of the medication he was originally on. Best of all, he seems to like touches from mom and dad, calms down when we sing and seems to know the voices of his parents, grandparents and brother who have been able to visit. I have gotten to change his diaper, put a little breast milk in his mouth and kiss him. Brandon has been by his side the most, knows all the things the nurses are monitoring, got to hold Logan while they changed his sheet and just got to see him practice sucking for the first time. It is painful to not be able to hold him close but we are looking forward to being able to do so on Monday evening (I hope) and bring him home soon thereafter (I hope). I'm not sure I will ever let him go. Check out this precious little peanut!

I am supposed to be sleeping and am not able to provide more details at this moment before mom comes up here and tells me to go to sleep one more time. …like how amazing the birth team at Health Foundations was at making quick decisions to get Logan in to the best hands, or what a blessing our parents have been to care for us and Ethan, or how Ethan’s first observation was “he’s so small I cant even see him”, or how thankful we are for the many many people who have been praying for us and Logan, or how wonderful the Children’s NICU team has been caring for our son and supporting us, or how much I appreciate Brandon’s coping mechanism is humor, or how overwhelmed with gratitude we are for all the things seen and unseen that people have been doing to support us. Though I definitely question why this all is happening, there have been so many instances of God displaying his presence throughout the past 36 hours that have comforted us and reminded us that He is in control and will provide. 

More pictures, updates and reflections to come.

Lynn

Buckle up!

Friends we are so excited to tell you baby Camp is in the oven and expected on June 20th!

I was reading my blog posts from my first pregnancy and can tell you this one is already different. (Sorry, it has been a year and a half since I posted last.) The wonder about what is going to happen has shifted to excitement because I have a vague idea of what it will be like (though I know am sure I am in for plenty of surprises). There is also just so much more going on and because the baby is 5 months away, there are so many other things to think about and we are a little more prepared, I haven't been taking to, thinking or dreaming about this little one as much yet. How to spoil the second kid with love and attention like you did the first is already a challenge. Tips anyone?

What a precious gift this baby is to our family already. He/she (we are going to be surprised again) has provided much joy in some difficult times and has given us more opportunities to practice depending on The Lord. The baby has already had an eventful life traveling to North Carolina and Las Vegas, has been in a car accident, found out it will have a cousin almost exactly the same age and gets serenaded by Ethan and Dad regularly.

Ethan (almost 2 and a half) has continued to amaze us. He is pretty well potty trained (#1 only), sleeps in bunk beds, can complete a magnetic United States puzzle on his own, has very detailed descriptions of his outings with Ja Ja (imaginary friend), remembers things better than I do, makes connections that I never would, shows care and concern for others, chooses the people he would like to pray for at night, asks questions about God and the people we know that are in heaven, has an amazing vocabulary, enjoys singing and playing the piano, is very curious, articulate and observant, 'reads' books after memorization and by looking at the pictures, helps put the silverware away, enjoys 'school' (2 hour early childhood class on Wednesdays), loves his days with Oma, Grandpa, Nana and G-Pop, seems to like playing with girls more than boys....I could go on forever. There is definitely a challenging side, don't get me wrong...those highlights make him sound angelic. But we must have had a good day today so the challenges are not as fresh in my mind at the moment. I may need a reminder about these fun things to look forward to when we have a newborn again and I am a slave to getting the baby to eat and sleep while not getting much sleep myself. There is a light...!

A few fun Ethan quotes...
When reading a tag on a gift, "this one has some E's on it, it must be for Ethan"
When I asked if he wanted to look at a map of Minnesota or the United States, he thought for a minute and replied "the Me-nited States".

Lots of joy in the Camp household. Thanks for joining us in this journey!

Snapshots

A few quick snapshots of Ethan these days. Sorry if this gets a little long but this blog doubles as my journal.

A whole new world has opened up for both myself and Ethan now that he can walk. Since crawling wasn't a great mode of transportation for him, he needed a lot of help from me to do what he wanted to do. Now that he can walk around, go where he wants to go and play with what he wants to play with, he is a much happier buddy...when he can stay on his feet. In one week Ethan fell multiple times and had at least 4 bruises on his forehead, a bloody lip, scraped knuckles from falling on the sidewalk while holding sticks. He then closed the toilet seat on one of those knuckles. He catches himself for most falls and just says "bah" ('bonk').

He signs 'milk', 'more', 'food', and 'water'. Though he doesnt always seem to want what he is asking for. His spoken vocabulary is increasing as well. Besides mama and dada, he says...
"do" - 'door'
"duh" - 'duck'
"dah" - 'dog' & 'down' & 'cat'
"bah" - 'ball'
"pah" - 'up'
"tahh" - 'hot'
"mah" - 'Amen'
"bduh bduh" - 'manamana' (a song by the Muppets)
"e i e i" - "E I E I O" when we sing Old McDonald
"mmm ma" - 'Oma'
"nanna" - 'Nanna' & 'banana'
"pop pop" - 'Grandpa' & 'G-Pop'
rolls his lips - 'car', 'truck', and anything else with wheels

Ethan has started to get more cuddly and affectionate within the last month. He gives a lot of hugs and kisses, blows kisses and puts his head on our shoulders. In the evening after bath time, he will 'tackle' us and just randomly stop what he is doing to give us a hug. He also cuddles with Doidey duck when he goes to bed. It is pretty cute except I need to keep my eye on him and who he shares his affection with. At the library about a month ago, I was looking for books while Ethan was playing with a two year old girl that was pretty interested in the 'baby'. I looked over to check on Ethan and the two are giving each other a kiss...open mouth...on the lips! He also kisses Emily Elizabeth when we read Clifford books.

I've been pretty impressed with Ethan's motor skills. He likes to put things into holes, specifically leaves into the adirondack chair screw holes. He likes to hide and peek around corners, bring me books to read, plop down on his butt like he wants me to read it but stand up and walk away before I can finish the first sentence. He holds the phone up to his ear and says 'ahhahh'. My favorite thing he does right now is making his fish face! Or maybe it is when he dances by bouncing up and down or shaking his head from side to side. Sometimes he tries to snap too. I think I could go on forever about every little cute thing he does. It is so fun to watch him learn, play and explore.

Mostly happy times in the Camp house with the exception of when we try to brush Ethan's teeth, put his diaper and pajamas on at the end of naked time in the evenings, put on the super cute Puma shoes I got him for his birthday but already gave him or cut his nails.

Sorry no pictures with this post. I need to go to bed and I'm not doing very well with taking pictures...I'll get a smartphone soon and do better. There will for sure be pictures of his birthday that we are celebrating this weekend.

Hoping you all have similar opportunities to enjoy little joys in your life as well.