All posts tagged: eric

Eleven

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Eleven. My first born son is eleven years old. Everyone says it goes by so fast. That statement always makes me sad and anxious.  I want to savor moments, take deep breaths, and hold on so I feel and experience the miracle of this child before me. It is true that time can not slow down; and it is also true that time does not speed up. It is constant. None of that changes the fact that Eric is and eager early bird in just about everything. Mornings he is especially bright, cheery, and early. On the morning of his birthday he was so eager to get to school he asked to walk over early and play on the playground (which I can see from my back window). Little did I know that he would head to his classroom where his teacher told him he can’t arrive an hour before school starts. His early arrival in life is just who he is. It certainly has presented challenges, particularly at his birth when he arrived fourteen …

Eight Anniversary of Coming Home

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December tenth doesn’t mean much to my enthusiastic 8 year old. He doesn’t get presents and it isn’t his birthday. To me however, this day never goes by without a moment to note its very special significance. Today will always be the day we brought our first born home from his 96 day stay at California Pacific Medical Center. It was a long sleepless night for all of us. I was terrified. I had convinced myself that babies were best cared for under the twenty-four hour attention of highly trained medical professionals and, maybe he was better off there until he is was one year old. Something so natural as bringing your baby home from the hospital seemed inconceivable for me at that time. He seemed so safe in the hospital. Bringing him home felt equivalent to running a mountain ridge with scissors in your hand. First Ride in the car. Destination? Home! Of course it was time and ready or not he was coming home leaving behind the sanitized medical facility for the warm …

Eating, breathing, & pooping

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Eric continues to drink and digest his milk up like a champ and that is key to helping him get stronger. Below you can see nurse Kathy gavage feeding him. Gavage feeding is when the nurse lets the milk flow through the tube that leads to his stomach. Eric can not feel the feeding tube in his throat as you and I would because at this age the do not yet have a gag reflex so it is perfectly comfortable for him. Remembering to breath is Eric’s biggest challenge right now and something all preemies need to grow into. He is still getting oxygen throught CPAP, which gets delivered either with a tiny mask over his nose or these tiny little nasal prongs. The resipatory therapists alternate between the two to keep his skin healthy. When he needs more oxygen they can turn it up a bit but he needs to take a breath for the oxygen to get where it needs to go. We are definitely his cheer leading squad for this. Today Eric …

Eric”s eyes open

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On Monday, Eric decided it was time to take a look around. His eyes have opened and he seems to notice our movements next to the incubator. It is hard to tell what color they are but they are dark — either dark blue or brown. We visited him again last night and they have switched him back to the CPAP which is a bigger breathing device that provides positive pressure of air in his lungs. They did this because he was having too many “episodes” of breathing apnea. Sometimes a preemie “forgets” to breathe. When this happens the alarms go off and the nurse gently massages him until he breathes again. This was happening too often so they had to switch the breathing apparatus. He also got some blood from the Blood Bank yesterday because a preemie doesn’t make new blood quickly and they take several blood samples each day. So he was a little low and received 12 ml of blood. They say it will help reduce the apnea because he’ll have more …

Eric is born!

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At 4:34 p.m. on September 7, 2006, Tara gave birth to our son Eric Thomas DelloIacono Thies at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco! Born only 26 weeks and 2 days into Tara’s pregnancy, Eric is a real preemie but he is healthy and safe in the wonderful care of CPMC’s Newborn ICU.Eric’s birth weight was 1 lb. 15 oz and he is 14 inches long. Mommy is doing well and has already started pumping milk to feed little E. He is so cute and very feisty. One of the biggest concerns for newborn preemies is their breathing. Eric came out crying, which was joy to our ears, and so far he has not once needed to be placed on a ventilator.We can visit Eric at any time day or night and if all continues to go well with his development in the NICU, he could be able to come home in December.We love him so much and we thank everyone for all the love and support.love, Aaron and Tara

The feeding begins

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Now that Eric is on the ventilator his breathing is stable and they have begun feeding him Mom’s milk. He gets a very small amount every 3 hours. This is such good news because he can now start “bulking up”.Little angel sleeping: Daddy holds Eric’s hand. (note that the head covering has been removed now; this is an older pic):