Memorial Day

Good Morning! Katie and I are up at the hospital with Ethan, and since she's feeding him, I figured I'd take a moment to give you our weekly update. (WITH pictures this time)

Ethan has continued to improve his strength and endurance while eating. He still brady's about once a day on average, but it seems to be less frequently as the week has progressed. He starts most of his feeds orally now, and finishes a couple each day! His little body is starting to chunk up a little, it's really cute to see.

You can see here^^ Ethan stretching. Every three hours or so, he wakes up and stretches, yawns, and then decides to tell us that he's hungry! No, he can't talk yet, but he definitely communicates his desires!

Katie calls this his "milk coma". Just like you and I do after thanksgiving dinner, Ethan gets tired when he's full, and drifts off to sleep with a satisfied smile on his face!

We still don't know when he's coming home, but I know that we're a week closer than we were last Sunday, so that's good news! He's progressing at his own pace and we're just praying that he continues to develop. Your prayers are still very much appreciated, thank you for your continued support.

- Ken

A Whole Feed!!!

Well, Katie and I got home late last night, so I figured I'd post my weekly update this morning. I'm so glad I did! When we arrived at the hospital, his nurse told us that he'd taken his whole bottle at one of his feedings in the night! That was SUCH an encouragement to us, Katie really had begun to feel as though this waiting was interminable.

We forgot to bring the camera cord up to the hospital, so I'll edit this post when we get home this afternoon and put some pictures up. Enjoy your day!

- Ken

3 Weeks Old

I put the original emails on a page here (look at the hard to read page titles at the top of this page) so that you can catch up on the original emails if you missed them. (Click here)

Ethan has continued to have a great week! He did very well those first couple of days after Tuesday, so the doctors moved him up to 2 feeds orally, and Katie is able to nurse him for both of those. Of course, that's been a special thing for her and Ethan, and we're excited that he's come this far.

He's also continued to get bigger. This evening, he weighed 3 lbs, 10.8 oz, which is an improvement of almost half a pound over his initial birth-weight! We are truly blessed for Ethan to be doing so well.
As I was looking for which pictures to put up today, I noticed that we didn't take any of Katie and Ethan, because most of the time she was holding him, she was nursing. I'll try to fix that this week, she is of course much better to look at than myself.

He's been very alert, as you can see in some of these pictures. His eyes aren't yet focusing on anything in particular, over the next 2 weeks that ability should develop more. At some point before Ethan joins us at home, he'll be tested for hearing and sight.
One of my favorite things that has developed this week has been Ethan's personality. I know that I can't really tell who God's created him to be yet, but periodically I think I see flashes of "Ethan" in his responses. I wonder if all parents feel this excited just to discover who their son/daughter is?

Bottle Feeding

Another great report! Ethan has continued to gain weight, he's now just over his birth weight. Also, he started showing signs that he might be ready to try bottle-feeding. Sucking on his fingers, waking up when its time for his feeding, etc. So, yesterday the nurses gave him a bottle for his 3:00 feeding, and he ate 10 cc's from it! We're really excited, it's another milestone for him, and a big one. We've been told that the two goals for him to be able to go home are 1) weigh 4+ lbs, and 2) for him to be taking all his feedings by the bottle/breastfeeding. He's also continuing to gain weight. Katie and I are trying to not get our hopes up, but we're eagerly looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you mothers, Happy Mothers Day! This was Katie's first mother's day as a mother, and it was very special for her! We went to church this morning, it was good to be with our church family again.

Ethan has continued to eat, sleep and grow, He's up to about 3.2 lbs today. He's showing signs that he's getting ready to start bottle-feeding. He's waking up and staying awake when it's time for his feeding, starting to "root" around by sucking on his fingers, taking the pacifier, etc. We hope that he'll start bottle-feeding soon, it should happen whenever the doctor's feel like he's capable.

I'm trying to get a couple closeup pictures of Ethan with his eyes open for you guys, but they turned out really grainy. I'll try to get some this week, thank you for all your continued prayers and love!

- Ken

Gaining Weight

I'm happy to share the news that Ethan is now on his way to being a chunky baby! He's back up to 3.1 lbs now, and the nurse tonight gave him 27 oz. of milk for dinner. As he gains weight, they'll be able to feed him even more. He's consistently keeping his food down, so we're thrilled with that. We get to hold him for about an hour twice a day, so Katie holds him during the day shift and I go back up at night for a little while. Today and yesterday, the nurse had Katie place Ethan in the nursing position and let him "nuzzle" for a while. He seems to like "them" just fine, we're looking forward to when he's developmentally ready for nursing. The concern at this point is that his brain can't coordinate sucking, swallowing and breathing all at once.

Another thing that is an issue with premature babies is bradycardia. Ethan has had a few episodes here or there, but he's on a caffeine treatment for that. Overall, he's a happy little baby, with a small feisty streak. We're so proud of him, and we cant wait to bring him home!



As a followup from my post on Sunday, Doctor Alexander said that his brain ultrasound came back showing nothing for concern. Praise God! We'll still need to see how his tests for hearing and sight go over the next few weeks, but so far so good!Not much more to add at this point, so I'll sign off for now. Thanks for your continued prayers for our family!
- Ken

One more step

Today was another day closer to Ethan's trip home! In these first two pictures, you can see the nurse in the background getting Ethan's lunch started. They still have his feeding tube going into his nose, he seems to handle that better than in his mouth. He looks like a burrito wrap in this picture below because 1-he feels safe and secure that way, 2-it keeps him from pulling his cords! I remember my dad telling me that after he had surgery, he woke up very determined to get that tube out of his throat. This must be in the Sherman gene pool somewhere, so Ethan comes by it honestly. I wonder how Dad would have responded to being swaddled though...Today we went in to see Ethan, and discovered that he'd outgrown the extra small diapers they'd been using, so they went up a size. Apparently, baby diaper designers didn't really think through their sizing charts, as you can see below. Katie and I spent a good 10 minutes laughing at this. Ethan didn't seem to mind, he was pretty good-natured about it all as he slept. He was actually a little bit lethargic today. I was a bit concerned at first that he was so sleepy, but Katie read that all babies, especially premature babies have active days, and tired days. I know that its true for adults too, so it makes sense.

While we were at the hospital today, Katie and I met a family who also has just had a premature baby. We had a mutual friend who put us in touch with each other, so we thought we'd get to know them a little as we are both spending significant amounts of time at the hospital over this next month or so. It was a very pleasant, and encouraging time for us. Their son is even younger than Ethan, and has a few more challenges to face, so please lift up the Bolton family as God lays them on your hearts.

This last couple of days, Katie and I have been confronted again and again with the realization that God has been so gracious to us. Ethan was certainly young, but he is healthy in so many ways. We thank God for that, and give Him glory. There are others that we've seen who are in our situation, but God for His own reasons chose to give their children more difficult times, yet they still praise God and give Him glory! I love that my God's goodness and praise-worthiness is not dependent on my situation.

One Week

Today has been a big day for Ethan! He decided that he didn't need to be on the nasal cannula today, so he pulled it out. When the nurses last night and this morning put it back in, we're told that he took it back out and vocally expressed his desire that it remain out. Since his oxygen levels were doing well, the nurses left it out until Dr. Alexander came around. Not only did he agree with Ethan on the nasal cannula, but he said that Ethan's ready to come off of his IV as well! Katie and I are SOOooo happy to have Ethan hooked up to a few less cords. They're going to leave the IV in for a day, in case they need it soon, but he's not getting any fluids through it.

Now, other than the monitors, the only cord connected to Ethan is his feeding tube. You may notice in his pictures that his feeding tube is now going through his nose instead of his mouth. In the last 24 hours, Ethan has pulled out his feeding tube at least 5 times that I know of. Dr. Alexander says that they will try to start him bottle feeding at 32 weeks (gestational age), which will be this Wednesday! I'm looking forward to that, I'll make sure to ask the nurse if she'll do it at a time when I'm around with a camera!

A couple days ago, one of Ethan's nurses noticed a little bit of drainage from one eye. She took a culture of it and sent it off. Dr Alexander talked with us today regarding that, it showed an infection in Ethan's eye. He didn't seem very concerned with it, as Ethan's been on antibiotic eye-drops for a couple days now. (they started him on that when they sent the cultures off)

Over the next 3 weeks, Ethan will be tested on his hearing, and sight. He had an ultrasound today to check his brain for any signs of hemorrhage. We'll hear about the results of that tomorrow. There isn't any reason to be concerned, these tests are just routine, to make sure that there were no complications with his birth. Of course, we'd love your continued prayers that our son keeps getting stronger, and is fully healthy!

I decided that I would post a video today, I hope you enjoy! As far as news goes, Ethan's doing great, he's off the phototherapy! Praise God for His continued blessings!
- Ken