ONE MORE WEEK!!!!!

WOW! Next week this time Isaac will be sleeping next to me on the co-sleeper we got! I still can't really imagine. I mean I will get Isaac 24/7! What will it be like???

I am getting more and more excited but at the same time a little emotional too. I suspect I won't be able to hold back tears when we leave Toho next week. All of us in this little family went through so much at Toho. Although now that I have announced it to the world, I will probably not end up crying. ^_^

On a morning about a week or so ago, soon after we set the Oct 7 date, I started crying because it hit me all of a sudden that Rachel won't be coming home with us when Isaac comes home. I told Jong and he gently reminded that Rachel is already home. That is such a nice reminder. As we approach Isaac's discharge date, my thoughs often drift back to our first few days at Toho. Because of all the sacrifices that Rachel made and the sufferings she perservered through to last just long enough for her brother to survive, although I miss her terribly, I really am very glad that she is already home with our Heavenly Father and is directly experiencing His Perfect Love.

These days I am just busy nursing, bottle feeding (we still have to switch to bottle feeding after nursing for a little bit) and on weekends, bathing Isaac. We are really just waiting for next weekend to come so that he can finally come home. Isaac is now over 2.6 kg (5.y lbs).

Here is a video from today - its Isaac doing little push ups again.



Blessings,

Sonia

Hannah's Prayer Ministries

Dear all,

As I have said many times before on here. My Christian sisters on Hannah's Prayer Ministries have provided Isaac, Jong and I beyond incredible support. This week is Hannah's Prayer Ministries' fundraising week so I would just like to share this with all of you:

Dear Friend,

I am writing to you on behalf of Hannah’s Prayer Ministries and the thousands of members we minister to daily. Please take a moment and read about our ministry and how you can help support what God is doing.

Did you know that infertility affects about 6.1 million Americans, or 10 percent of the reproductive age population, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine? Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive within one year of unprotected intercourse, or the inability to carry a child to live birth.

Since the term "infertility" is limited, as we have grown, we coined the term "fertility challenges" to cover the standard definition of "infertility" in conjunction with the sorrows of stillbirth, early infant death, or those who are able to get pregnant easily, but who have suffered the loss of a child at some point between conception and early infancy.

Being unable to conceive a much-wanted child, or carry a pregnancy to term, can fill a couple with sadness, grief, anger, despair, and even a sense of personal failure. Hannah’s Prayer Ministries provides Christian based support and encouragement to women around the world who are struggling with this pain.

As with any ministry, there is a financial burden. Up until now, God has blessed Hannah’s Prayer Ministries through the gifts of various generous givers and a few occasional fundraisers. With the rapid growth of this ministry, we are reaching the limits of our financial budget. That is why I am writing to you – we need your help. Would you be willing to share the blessings you have received with this incredible ministry?

Please keep in mind that Hannah's Prayer Ministries is a California based, non-profit 501( c)(3) organization. All staff members are unpaid volunteers who are proclaiming Christians (from a range of denominational backgrounds) and have personal experience with the heartache of fertility challenges.

We are asking for donations or a commitment to a monthly gift to support our efforts to help women facing fertility challenges. Would you please make out your check to Hannah’s Prayer Ministries and mail it to P.O. Box 3321 in Borger, Texas 79008? There is also an option on giving through Paypal if you would like. A lot of women who need our help would be grateful if you could send us your tax-deductible donation today.

We are sincerely grateful for your support!

Sincerely,

Sonia

P.S. We would be happy to send you more information about our ministry. You can find more information at www.hannah.org or e-mail us at fundraising@hannah.org for more information.

Kissing(?) daddy and head lifts

Jong visited Isaac in the afternoon and I visited him in the evening. Jong came out of his visit happy as a clam because he said Isaac kissed him. Jong then admitted that he put his cheeks really close to Isaac's mouth and Isaac probably thought daddy's cheeks were mommy's boobs, but I guess you gotta get the kisses anyway you can! LOL! ^_^

Here is another video I took of Isaac on his tummy tonight before I left. He was REALLY lifting his head up tonight!



Blessings,

Sonia

Finally - Some Pictures and Video

Dear all,

I am finally posting some pictures and video! You will notice that Isaac is not wearing the standard hospital issued white robe anymore. Isaac's very kind primary nurse Imae-san has been making sure that he has one cute outfit after another lately! We also donated a few preemie sized outfits to the hospital that we know Isaac won't fit in very soon.

From Sunday:

This is how we found Isaac when we first arrived on Sunday - he was sleeping sideways across in his little bed and we think its so cute!

Another shot:
As I mentioned in my previous post, Sunday was Isaac's doctor, Dr. Ishii's last day at Toho. Here is a picture of us and him:
From Monday:

A couple of headshots:
These were from after I put him down in his bed. He kept lifting his head (as you will see in his video) and I think he was trying to crawl a little bit!

Video from Monday (yesterday). He was really fussy when I was trying to feed him but was a much a happier camper afterwards:



Blessings,

Sonia

OCTOBER 7!!!!!!!!!!

Dear all,

Sorry I haven't posted pictures or videos for so long. I am trying to use my spare time to finish up some online shopping for Isaac so that the goods will arrive before Jong's last trip to the US before Isaac's homecoming!

WE SET A DATE TODAY - if Isaac doesn't have any setbacks, he is COMING HOME ON OCTOBER 7!!!!!! Please pray that he doesn't get sick or anything before coming home!

Also, another amazing thing. We went to St. Luke's pretty blind and had no idea about the doctor we ended up seeing. As I said in my last post, he turned out to be the only neonatologist at St. Luke's but the more amazing thing is when we told Dr. Ishii about St. Luke's and Isaac's new doctor, he said that this new doctor is really famous! Wow!

We were also very surprised when Dr. Ishii told us that today is his last day at Toho. We will definitely miss him and its a shame he is not there when Isaac comes home. Isaac's care is going to be taken over by Dr. Kawase for the remainder of Isaac's time there. Dr. Kawase took care of Rachel so we are pretty comfortable with Dr. Kawase.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Sonia

Wow! God has it all figured out (as always)

So when we went to St. Luke's yesterday, I had no idea who we were seeing. It turned out that Ogura-san is good friends with someone really senior at Kokuritsu Hospital who knows the head of the pediatric department at St. Luke's. However, the head of the pediatric department is currently in the US so we ended up going to try to see the second most senior person at the pediatric department at St. Luke's . Well, I just got a chance to look up the doctors at St. Luke's online and by the descriptions of the doctors they have on the website, the doctor we saw who accepted Isaac as his patient seems to be the only pediatrician who is also a neonatologist at St. Luke's pediatric department. God obviously had it all figured out! ^_^

So many things to be thankful for!

First of all, you know how I said I wouldn't be able to nurse Isaac during weekdays because I can only visit in the evenings on weekdays and the hospital doesn't have enough staffing to do it? Well, yesterday when I arrived I was surprised that they had set things up so that I could nurse Isaac! So now I get to nurse Isaac every day! (Although I am not sure if I get to nurse Isaac just once or three times tomorrow.) It was just soooo encouraging that the hospital did that without us pushing for it! (We asked last weekend but just casually and immediately said it was okay when the nurse said it would be difficult.)

In the meantime, after Dr. Ishii told us that Red Cross Hospital would not take us, we asked Dr. Che about Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital and St. Luke's and his comments made us want to be able to get into St. Luke's Hospital even more. So Jong talked to his business partner Ogura-san who knew someone who knew someone at St. Luke's. ^_^ He arranged for us to try to go to a walk in appointment to talk to one of the pediatricians and he stayed and waited with us. The wait turned out to be 4 hours long!!!! The good thing about the long wait was Jong was originally going to miss it because of a meeting he had that couldn't be rescheduled. But he was able to join us because we waited for so long. Once we got in, it didn't take that long for the doctor to agree to take Isaac! We are sooooo relieved because the doctor seems very nice and kind, PLUS, he speaks really great English!!!! We are so thankful to God!

Anyway, my eyes won't stay opened so I am going to run.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Sonia

Getting closer...

Dear all,

We are getting closer to Isaac coming home. I saw Dr. Ishii and we are still targeting early October - he said he is thinking first week of October! Basically, we need to sort out a few things - the hospital providing post-discharge care and having Isaac's oxygen equipment set up at home (and I think it has to happen in that order).

Dr. Ishii said that he contacted both Red Cross/Nisseki Hospital and Aiku Hospital both in Hiroo and very close to our apartment but neither will take on Isaac. Apparently, because Isaac is coming home on oxygen, hospitals view his case as very difficult so its more difficult to get hospitals to agree to take on Isaac's case. Dr. Ishii did find another hospital called Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital (Tokyo Jyosei Iiryo Daigaku Byoin) in Shinjuku that would take Isaac but I haven't figured out how far that is yet. We are also going to try to contact St. Luke's Hospital in Tsukiji ourselves (which we don't think is too far away) to see if they might agree to take on Isaac. St. Luke's is very close to Jong's office, is international and a Christian hospital so we want to give it a try. Please pray that God will lead us to the right hospital for Isaac's long term post discharge care. We have talked to a pediatrician/neonatologist whose patients are almost all foreigners/non-Japanese called Dr. Che but he only has a private clinic so we need to make sure that Isaac has a hospital for his long term care as well.

Dr. Ishii told us that based on Isaac's MRI yesterday, he doesn't think Isaac has had an PVL (Periventricular Leukomalacia) - basically cysts in an infant's brains which is mainly caused by insufficient blood flow to parts of an infant's brain. We don't think Isaac has had any brain bleeds either. We just praise the Lord for protecting Isaac from this as its a real miracle for Isaac to escape this problem being born so very early.

Isaac got an EEG (Electroencephalography) which is basically a brain function test and also got his ears and his heart checked today. Dr. Ishii won't be available to talk to us till this Sunday with respect to the results.

Again, I can't thank all of you enough for all of your prayers for our little miracle boy.

Also, I heard back from Jennifer and she gave me permission to link her blog to my blog so that you can check on Emily's updates directly and continue to pray for her. Their blog is at http://jakae.blogspot.com. I will also put it on our sidebar. Please continue to pray for Emily and her parents Jennifer and Tony.

Sonia

Emily

Dear all,

I just checked Jennifer's blog and got a not so great update on Emily. Please continue to pray for little Emily!!!

Seven Weeks Old

Emily is seven weeks old today. She now weighs 890 grams.

A new doctor is on rotation in the nursery for the next three weeks. The past week, Emily's blood gases have not improved even though the pressures on the ventilator have been steadily increased. The doctors are concerned about trauma to her lungs being caused by the higher pressure settings exacerbating her chronic lung disease, so they put her on the oscillator again. They are also starting her on another course of steroids to help control the inflammation in her lungs. The hope is that the oscillator will give her lungs time to heal as she grows so that she can go back to the regular ventilator after a week or so. She continues to fight the oscillator by trying to breathe on her own, so they plan to give her some Versed to calm her down and let the oscillator do all of the work for her. She still has bronchiospasms as a result of the BPD, but she is usually able to recover from these spells by herself.

We're getting worried that the ICN staff seem to be giving up on Emily. One of the doctors said that in terms of her lungs, she is one of the ten worst cases they've ever seen. Last week, another doctor said that her lungs could just continue to worsen and that they may be "incompatible with life". Then there are the nurses. Emily has two very good nighttime primary nurses, so she usually gets a primary that knows her for five nights a week. She doesn't have any daytime primaries, but there used to be several which worked with her all the time. Now they don't even come over to visit her isolette. One of them told us that she "couldn't deal with all of Emily's problems". The per diem nurses (we have been told that these nurses are not regular employees and aren't able to choose which babies they care for) are usually the ones who end up caring for Emily during the daytime. As a result, she has a new nurse almost every day during the day shift and two nights a week.

Please keep praying for Emily. Our daughter certainly hasn't given up yet!

Tony

What a great long weekend

Dear all,

We continued to have a really wonderful and blessed long weekend with Isaac. Monday was a holiday here in Japan. I bathed Isaac for the first time on Sunday and then Jong got to bathe Isaac for the first time on Monday. I got to breastfeed Isaac a little bit more on Sunday and Monday as well - 5 minutes on each breast once on each day. Isaac continued to do pretty well with the breast feeding. Unfortunately, the hospital does not have enough evening staff to allow me to breastfeed during my week day evening visits so I have to wait till the weekend before I can try to do it again.

Isaac also seemed a lot more alert and seemed to interact with us more since he came back out of the incubator on Saturday. He was making more eye contact and seemingly trying to reach out to things more. Here are some pictures from yesterday:

I really love this picture of Isaac and his daddy!
Isaac somehow got his hands on daddy's glasses and pulled it off!
Hello little Isaac! ^_^

Isaac had an MRI today (the results are still forthcoming) but he had to take some sedatives before the MRI. I am not sure if its because he was finally waking up from the sedative when I got there but he was really fussy and moving non stop tonight. After I put him back down on the bed, he kept trying to lift his head up to look at more things. Here is a video from today:



Anyway, its getting late so I will sign off here.

God bless,

Sonia

We did it!

Isaac was such a good little boy today. He didn't throw too many tantrums and was just the sweetest most curious little boy looking at daddy, mommy and everything around him. It was almost like he was so happy to get out of the incubator and to be held by us again that he decided to behave really well. ^_^

We got to see Isaac get bathed for the first time ever. Today was for us to observe first. We should get our first try tomorrow. He was just soooooo incredibly cute. You can judge for yourself:



After Isaac was all cleaned up, I got to try breastfeeding Isaac directly for the first time ever!!!!!! I was warned by many friends that the first time will probably be really hard and that Isaac might not latch on. But our little Isaac was such a good little boy! He latched on immediately and was really good at it! We only got to do it for 3 minutes on each breast since today was just and "try and see" attempt. We also didn't weigh him before and after the attempt so we don't know how much he got. But based on how much I was able to pump afterwards, I suspect he was able to get about 20-30 ml from me directly. I am sooooo thankful to God that Isaac was able to breastfeed well. He breathed really well during the breastfeeding as well. It will make life soooo much easier if I can breast feed him directly when he gets home, especially during night feedings! Being able to breast feed him directly today just made all the pumping the last 5 months totally worth it!!!!

I also tried to cut his finger nails today. That was really, really stressful for me! Phew!! I hope it gets easier!

Jong and I are really thankful to our Lord for a great day we got to spend with our little boy today.

Thank you for all of your prayers which made all this possible for us (um, I think I sound like a commercial break. Hehe.)!!!!

Blessings,

Sonia

May get to bathe and breast feed Isaac today?

Isaac has been back on his nasal cannular for 2 days now but has still been inside the incubator. If things go well, he is supposed to come out of the incubator today and if his condition is good today, Jong and I might get to bathe him this afternoon and I may get to try breast feeding him!

I will update when I get back tonight.

Sonia

BIG GUMMY SMILE!!!! ^_^

Dear all,

First of all, when I went to see Isaac tonight, Isaac's nasal feeding tube has been taken out and since he is still in the incubator with extra oxygen, I got to see his whole face with NO tape or tubes!!!!!! He has quite a handsome and definitely a very cute albeit chubby face if I dare say so myself! :)
Dr. Ishii was there tonight and he said that if Isaac's CRP level is good tomorrow, they will stop the antibiotics and then take out the IV 2 days later. Because Isaac is in the incubator this week, the EEG and MRIs will be done next week instead. But the good news is Dr. Ishii is still planning to have Isaac come home early October!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Isaac was pretty sleepy tonight. He ate and then konked out. I think this picture is really funny despite the glare from the fluorescent lights, because Isaac looked so cute konked out!In any case, if you are able to bear with my very hoarse singing voice until the very end of this video, you will see a big gummy smile from Isaac! Its really great!!!! Enjoy!


Oh and here is a picture from Monday when Isaac was on his tummy. You can see how nicely his scar from his heart surgery is healing!
God bless,

Sonia

Isaac is better but Mommy didn't get to see him tonight

Dear all,

Jong went to see Isaac at 4 pm. I decided not to go at 7 pm to rest a bit so that I can recover from this cold quickly. The ironic thing is work turned out to be really busy and I am still up waiting to talk to our US office.

In any case, Jong said Isaac was all better today. His CRP was down to 0.3 and he was very active. I won't write much as Jong gave a pretty good commentary on the video. The second video is a collage of Isaac's primary nurse Nurse Imai trying to "dance" with Isaac. Its very, very cute! Jong wants me to clarify that the nurse put the little white bandana on Isaac's head (and not Jong). Enjoy! ^_^





Sonia

Daddy is back

Jong arrived back in Tokyo yesterday afternoon. Isaac's temperature was still down yesterday and his breathing was okay when he was not moving too much or crying. They didn't check his blood yesterday so we don't know his CRP level. Jong kind of hogged Isaac throughout the entire visit. ^_^ Isaac was sleeping pretty much through out our visit (we didn't go during feeding time this time) and Jong said he saw him smile 4 times. Isaac is also back to bottle feeding and the nurse said he is doing well with eating from the bottle.

I am still feeling sick (one of the reason why I didn't get too close to the incubator last night). I am not sure if I will go to the hospital today. I have to see how I feel tonight...

Getting Stronger

Dear all,

Isaac is getting stronger and seems almost back to his old self. His temperature today stayed around or just a tad higher than 37 C or so(98.6 F). His CRP is now down to 1.6. I saw him twice again today at 1 pm and at 4 pm. He slept through most of his 1 pm but he was first throwing a tantrum and then wide awake at 4 pm.

At the 4 pm visit, I first had to change his poopie diaper before he could eat and he really kicked up a storm while I was trying to wipe his butt. He then started peeing all over the place while I was wiping his butt so the nurse had to change the sheet he was lying on (you will actually see the sheeting changing on the video clip). Somehow he seems to like to poop in 2 stages all the time -- after a while, I checked his diapers again and it was full of poop again! However, this time, he had finished eating and was all happy so it was alot easier without him kicking and kicking.

I am still feeling under the weather so I didn't stay for the 7 pm and came home. I can't believe tomorrow is Monday again. Nowadays, the weekends just zoom by and I barely feel like I had a weekend. The good news is Jong will be back tomorrow evening! Woo hoo!

Thanks very much for your prayers. I know I have said this already but I am thankful to be able to see what a simple cold can do to Isaac while he is still in the hospital! If Isaac continues to improve, he should be able to go back to bottle feeding tomorrow. I spoke with Dr. Ishii this afternoon briefly. I think because I kept saying how Isaac can sleep better inside the incubator because it was so much more quiet, Dr. Ishii actually said something like "I am sorry. When he is better, he has to come back out." LOL. ^_^

I also saw him smile today when he was sleeping during my 1 pm visit. Isaac's primary nurse Nurse Imae also wrote in his diary that she saw him smile last night while he was sleeping too. So now I am more convinced that the noise in GCU really bothers him because we have only seen him frown since he has been in an open bed in GCU. I think Isaac will like being home. ^_^

Oh and Isaac weighed 2,257 grams today. That's basically 5 lbs!

I see this a lot when I arrive - Isaac asleep with his face on top of his pacifier:
A full body shot of Isaac:
A shot from the top of the incubator with Isaac wide awake.
Look at Isaac's muscular arm! ^_^
Here are various video clips from today:



God bless,

Sonia

Isaac appears to be better but blood test results are worse

Dear all,

Isaac looked better today. His fever finally went down to 37.1 C (98.8 F) and he looked more energetic. However, his blood test today showed that his CRP went up to 2.6. I was told that the doctor prescribed a different antibiotic for Isaac. I guess may be he is getting a bacterial infection as well? However, I didn't get to talk to a doctor today so I don't know for sure. I am just praying that his fever will stay down and that the new antibiotic will really work and Isaac is really on the road to recovery.

I spent about 2 hours with Isaac today - from 1 pm to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 5 pm. His breathing was good both times I was there and would only drop when he is crying. Because of where his IV is in his arm, he has to lie face up which he doesn't seem to like that much. So he would wake up frequently and cry and fuss. I also wonder if he might not like being back in the incubator box? It might be my imagination but quite a few times, when I see him wake up all of a sudden, he would look confused as to where he was and would look surprised and then a bit scared. Its probably my imagination. I am glad that he is able to conserve his energy to recover as it is easier for him to breathe inside the incubator and sounds are more muffled. However, because he is so much bigger now than before and he does move around a lot more, he keeps hitting his arm with the IV on the side of the incubator box and I even saw him hit his knees on the side of the incubator box a couple of times! Another thing I noticed with him basically naked again is that he has very long arms but kinda short legs so he kinda looks like a little monkey. Hee hee. I won't comment who I think he got this from. ^_^

I woke up this morning feeling under the weather too. My first thought was I hope I have a little bit of what Isaac has so that I will have the right kind of antibodies in my milk to help him. I had to take care of a few things in the morning so I had to leave the apartment pretty early. By the time I finished my 4-5 pm visit, I was drained. So I decided that it was better for Isaac that I came home instead of hanging around the hospital and stay there for the 7 pm visit since he is still get fed by nasal tube anyway. So I came home and took a nap and then ate dinner. I am glad I did that even though I do feel a bit guilty about not staying at the hospital because I really think I am fighting something as I didn't have much of an appetite at dinner (which I can assure you is not normal ^_^) and I have a headache. I bumped into Isaac's primary nurse Nurse Imai before I left who is taking the evening shift so I felt more assured as I know she takes really good care of Isaac.

Anyway, I am going to share a bunch of pictures and some video clips, including some video clips from last Sunday that I had wanted to load but never got a chance to load.

These are pictures from today. I put my hand on Isaac's chest in one of them to give some perspective so you can tell how big Isaac is:



The following are some short video clips from today:



This is a video from last Sunday, September 3. I have been wanting to post this so you can all see Isaac crying as I don't think I have taped much of his crying. He is funny because he snorts when he cries. ^_^



This is also a video from last Sunday. After we came out of the 1 pm feed last Sunday, we came upon a Japanese style parade right in front of the hospital with the locals celebrating some kind of festival. So I thought some of you might be interested to see this. The buildings you see behind the parade are part of Toho University Hospital:



Thanks for your continued prayers,

Sonia

Back in the Incubator; Back to Tube Feeding

Talk about taking steps back. I arrived at the hospital today to discover that Isaac is back in an incubator. Dr. Ishii was there tonight so I got to speak to him. Apparently, Isaac's breathing this morning got even worse than last night so they decided to put him back in an incubator. They are keeping the incubator at 30% oxygen and Isaac's breathing stabilized after being put inside the incubator. They have also decided to go back to full tube feeding through his nose. Dr. Ishii decided that they should keep the antibiotics IV in because even though they believe it is a viral infection right now, it could easily turn into a bacterial infection so they want to keep the antibiotics as a precaution. What Isaac has is an upper respiratory infection from a common cold virus. It is chilling to my heart to see how much he is struggling just from a common cold. We will need to be soooooooooo vigilant this winter plus we will need our Lord's supernatural protection.

Isaac still has a fever. He was at 39 C (102.2 F) earlier today but was at 38.6 C (101.5 F) when I left. He felt warm to my touch and he clearly looked very uncomfortable. He was also less responsive to me compared with yesterday. Since Isaac has to stay in the incubator box, I only got to touch him with my hands (obviously no holding). Dr. Ishii thinks Isaac will stay in the box for 1 week or so.

Please continue to pray for us. On my way home, I called my parents and found out that my mom is feeling really sick as well - extremely dizzy and nauseous (my dad had to hang up because my mom was throwing up). Jong is still away and I just feel so weary right now and my heart hurts.

Here is a couple of pictures from today with Isaac back in the box again. The one good thing is he looks a lot bigger in the box now compared with the last time he was in the box back in late July. Also, a couple of days ago I brought in some preemie socks and a preemie cap that Jong got from the US a couple of trips before after Isaac got sick. It turned out that both items were too small for Isaac already. But they decided to use the socks for his hand so that he can't rip out his nasal feeding tube! Another good thing about the incubator box is GCU got jam packed again which means its really, really noisy. At least inside the box, the noise is more muffled out so hopefully Isaac gets to rest better.

Thank you for your prayers.

sonny

Short update this morning

Dear all,

This is a different post from what I posted about an hour ago because I got my assistant to call the hospital and she was able to speak with Isaac's primary nurse, Nurse Imai in Japanese. Here is the correct update:

Nurse Imai saids that in the middle of the night, last night, his fever was up to 38.7C (=101.66 F). They tried to cool his fever down, and it went down to about 37somethingC (37C = 98.6F) when they measured this early morning. They have not measured his temperature again since then, so they do not know the exact figures yet, but it has definitely lowered from last night. She said his breathing is not good, and he is having a hard time breathing. His condition today is the similar to that of yesterday

Please keep praying. Thanks,

Sonia

Isaac got worse today

Dear all,

Isaac isn't doing so well today. He is having a really hard time breathing. Its one thing if his SpO2 levels drop suddenly and he can recover on his own quickly. Its another thing when his SpO2 levels drop and stay down for a long time even though he is peaceful and resting. That's what was happening today. His SpO2 levels dropped to the low 60s for quite a while and they stayed in the low 70s for quite a while. We had a few nurses staying around us all very concerned and eventually the attending doctor Dr. Kawase (who was Rachel's doctor) came over and said that we need to increase the O2 going through Isaac's nasal cannular from 30% to 40%. Dr. Kawase said that Isaac's CRP went down today to 0.2 but he is still having a lot of difficulty breathing so he said that what Isaac has is not bacterial but viral. Therefore, they will probably stop the antibiotic IV tomorrow. He said the only way to treat Isaac right now is to give him more oxygen.

We did have kind of a God moment today. Jong and I have been singing the same few Christian songs to Isaac since he was born. One of Isaac's favorite is "I love you, Lord". We figured that it is his favorite since we saw him smile a few times when we sang this to him while he was in NICU (unfortunately, he doesn't smile much anymore since he moved to GCU - I think its because its too noisy and bright in there). In any case, this was towards the tail end of my visit tonight. Isaac was still breathing really poorly so the nurse decided to put Isaac on my chest in the kangaroo position. Isaac's breathing still didn't improve. After a little while, I decided to start singing "I love you, Lord" to him, almost immediately after I started singing to him, his SpO2 went up to the 90s and stayed there the entire time I was singing (I started singing other Christian songs too). After his SpO2 stayed up for a while, the nurse wanted to move him back onto the bed because it was getting way past the end of visiting hours. His SpO2 went back down after she put him down and I stopped singing. It was a little while after that when the nurse got Dr. Kawase to come over and the decision was made to increase Isaac's O2. Okay, I don't think it was because I am a good singer. I am not and I wasn't singing well tonight. I would like to think and it warms my heart to think that our little Isaac already loves our Lord and loves singing praise songs with his mommy.

Please pray that Isaac can be strong enough to fight off this cold virus. Fortunately, he only has a low grade fever. In a way, I think this has been a good but sobering learning erxperience -- I have read a lot about how important it is to "quarantine" Isaac and ourselves this winter so he doesn't get sick (and so that we won't get him sick). I now have first hand experience and truly understand how important this is. If a common cold virus can make him this sick, I don't want to know what something more serious can do to him.

Also, because of Isaac's poor condition, I won't be get to bathe Isaac this weekend nor will Isaac get to suckle directly from me for the first time this weekend.

Thank you for your prayers,

Sonia

My connection with the Japanese Royal Family

Some of you may have heard that Princess Kiko, the wife of Prince Akishino, the Emperor's second son, gave birth to a boy Wednesday morning. The baby is the first male born to the Imperial family in 41 years and becomes the third in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito, 46, and Prince Akishino, 40.

Well, it turns out that Princess Kiko had her C-section at Aiiku Hospital. She was apparently admitted into Aiiku on Aug 16 because of placenta previa. Some of you may recall that I stayed at Aiiku Hospital in March and the beginning of April before they kicked us out and transferred us to Toho University Hospital. In any case, I just saw this on Japan Times just now "A surgical team of about 10 members attended the operation, with Nakabayashi, the princess' chief physician, and Tomoko Adachi, his colleague at the hospital, performing the Cesarean section."

Some of you may also recall that I have very tiny veins and none of the nurses were able to get IVs into me so they always had to find doctors to do it (and I am pretty sure some of the doctors started hiding from me because it was so hard to get an IV into my arm). In any case, one time, Doctor Adachi, who is head of Aiiku's OB-GYN department, actually had to do my IV herself when they couldn't find any other doctors to do it! She is also the one who kicked us out of Aiiku and sent us packing to Toho. Hee hee. That's the closest royal connection I have ever had in my life. ^_^

Woo Hoo!

First of all, Isaac seems to be better today. His temperature the last time they checked before I got there tonight was 37.3 C (99 F) so he still has a slight fever. His CRP was at 0.3 again today. But more importantly, he definitely seemed like he had more strength today. He was completely limp last night but tonight, he actually was moving around a bit. He also finished his milk a lot quicker tonight compared with last night. He also whined a lot (he was literally making this whiny sound a lot) which I take as a good sign compared to him not making much of any noise at all yesterday. Please continue to pray that he will get better and better fast.

Isaac's primary nurse at GCU, Nurse Imai told me that Isaac's former primary nurse at NICU, Nurse Aayako claimed that she heard Isaac blabbling today (going bah bah bah). Jong saw Isaac briefly this morning before he headed to the airport for another trip and Jong claimed that he had Isaac mumbling. But I didn't hear anything except for crying and whining! Oh well.

Now onto the good news. I am going to take my first lesson to bathe Isaac this weekend. Plus we are going to try to have Isaac suckle directly from me this weekend as well! It will be only for 1-2 minutes but I am still very excited!!!!! They also increased Isaac's milk to 45 ml. Dr. Ishii does realize that Isaac wants more milk but he said that its bad for Isaac's body to have too much water inside because of his CLD so I guess Isaac has to be a little hungry for a while.

BUT the MOST EXCITING NEWS is Dr. Ishii said that barring any complications, he thinks he can discharge Isaac in early October!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! This is the first time I heard an actual date from Dr. Ishii and I will take it! He did warn that it might not end up being early October but later in October. But he still said October!!!!!

Isaac is going to start getting a series of very important tests starting next week. He will get an EEG, an MRI and other tests. Please pray that the tests will show that Isaac's brains have not had any bleeds or trauma and that he is developing normally.

Please continue to pray for Isaac this month so that he can come home soon!!!!!

Thanks,

Sonia

Our poor, poor little Isaac :(

His fever has apparently gone down and his infectious score wasn't too high (CRP was 0.3). But our usually fiesty little boy was sooooooo weak, limp and listless when I saw him tonight. He has an IV in his right arm and it looked like they had several missed tries so he had bandages all over the place. He was also very pale and had to take a very long time to finish his 40 ml of milk.

It just broke my heart to see him so weak and sick.

Please pray that his fever stays down and that he can rest well tonight and recover quickly.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Sonia

Please pray - Isaac has a fever

Jong just came out of the hospital from visiting Isaac and told me that Isaac has a fever. His blood test results are not that bad right now and they put him on antibiotics so please, please pray that the antibiotics would work quickly and just get rid of whatever bug he has ASAP.

I am kind of upset right now. I can't help but think that he caught this from the one year old girl they had put right next to him who was really sick all last week (obviously with a fever as they had ice bags all around her). I was worried about this last week and I had thought that they should have moved the girl off to a corner or back to NICU where babies are not as close to each other. Plus the nurses at GCU are less careful about sterilizing their hands between touching different babies than the nurses in NICU.

I am going to go to the hospital a little earlier today so I can pump fresh milk (which hopefully has good anti-bodies) for Isaac for his 7 pm feed. I feel so sad right now. My poor little baby! I also hope this won't cause Isaac's home coming date to be delayed.

Sonia

Snuggling

I am posting some pictures first. I will edit this post later to add the written part.

Some new pictures

Hi everyone,

When we see Isaac these days, we are pretty busy - changing diapers, feeding him, burping him and then cuddling with him. He still cries and fusses a lot. We are not sure if his crying is because he is not satisfied by the amount of milk is is getting so Jong is going to try to ask Dr. Ishii when he is thinking of increasing the volume of milk Isaac is getting.

We had a funny last night. Isaac was fussing while eating (we think he is more fussy at night) and Jong was trying to be all tough (like a baby would get it) and tried to be stern and told Isaac to stop crying and to keep eating. So Isaac just kept crying more. Of course Isaac's SpO2 started dropping so Jong said, "Okay, you're the boss!" and once daddy surrendered and said Isaac was the boss, Isaac immediately stopped fussing and finished his milk. I was laughing at Jong pretty hard! ^_^

Isaac got pass 2.1 kg today - 2,110 grams!!! 300 more grams till we reach Dr. Ishii's weight goal for Isaac to come home. We are really praying that Dr. Ishii will indeed let Isaac come home when he reaches 2.4 kg.

Emily is still doing okay although I just read that her belly is swollen a little bit. I also read on Emily's blog that Jennifer was able to kangaroo Emily a little bit last week. Yipee! Please continue to pray for them.

Here are some pictures from last night and today.

This was from last night:
The following pictures are from today.
Isaac pointing his fingers:
I haven't taken a picture of his feet for a while. They look a lot chubbier now!
God bless,

Sonia