NICU day #2


 

Good Morning to all of you in Brad and Charis’s vast support network! Charis’s big sister Phoebe, here, reporting on Baby Leo’s progress. I’ll start the story from the beginning so if you’re looking for an update, skip to the bottom!

Charis went into labor naturally this past Sunday afternoon. She and Brad spent a mostly sleepless night working through her contractions as they ramped up. After calling their doctor, they headed to the hospital to see what kind of progress she’d made around 10am on Monday. Charis was 6 cm dilated and after having her water broken was able to begin pushing around 2:30. She pushed for 2.5 hours, and aside from the fact that Leo was taking his time, all appeared well. Leo was born at 5:02pm but was unexpectedly not breathing or moving. The NICU team surrounded Leo and did what they do best.

By Monday evening, we were assured that Leo was going to make it and that the question was now how his brain would respond to the oxygen deprivation. He was intubated to support his breathing and his body temperature was cooled to optimize his neurological recovery. Tuesday morning saw a setback when Leo started seizing. They adjusted his mediations and Leo has responded really well ever since.

So here we are on Wednesday and Leo is:

- Over halfway through the 72-hour therapeutic cooling period 

-More than 24 hours without seizures

·       - Initiating breaths on his own over the ventilator

·        - And has lots of wiggles and normal movement despite heavy medication to keep him comfortable

Doctors are pleased with his vital signs and blood tests. The NICU team has told Charis and Brad to anticipate being able to hold Leo on Friday morning, after he is all warmed up. Many of their questions about his neurological function may be better answered the following week with appts for an MRI and with a neurologist coming up.

I know I speak for Brad and Charis when I say THANK YOU for your love, support, and prayers. The Lord’s kindness and sovereignty has been our hope and stay. Please continue to lift up Charis and Brad as they wait and wait and wait and wait. And Leo while his mind and body heal from the trauma of labor.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 10, 2021 at 5:09 PM

    Thank you, Phoebe, for the update. Praying for baby Leo, Charis and Brad, and all the wonderful family that loves baby Leo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 11, 2021 at 10:55 AM

    Brad, Charis & sweet baby Leo -- you are being prayed for around the clock! Sending you hugs and a whole lot of love! Stephanie Manuel

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leo is 3

Image
 *disclaimer* I just need to say that this post was written many times. Many things were written and then deleted. Paragraphs were switched around. Some sentences just didn't make sense at all. Trying to reflect on Leo's life as a whole obviously leaves me a bit at a loss for words. I think there's some good nuggets of truth in here. I know that scattered nature accurately reflects my mind as well. So, here's some thoughts from Leo's 3 years of life because I want to say so much but I never felt like it came out the way I wanted but I don't want that to keep me from sharing it :) A reflection on Leo's 3 years of life, from the perspective of his mom, written without fear of offending or coming across arrogant... I wish that his birthday brought only happy memories and not all the painful ones. We are overjoyed at who Leo is and how he is. We see great strength in his differences and interest in a life we never thought we'd have. But the very moment he wa
Read more

Happy 2024!

Image
 Some goings-on in the Wilcox family :D Leo got a haircut. We shaved the little lion's mane. But it'll grow back. I promise! We just think he's the cutest. So, when he gets a straight buzz, I've been doing it. I feel very accomplished that I can buzz his head and get us both cleaned up afterwards. However, when he gets more of a haircut it's either my sister or my cousin doing it while I hold him. I'm a big fan of the buzz, though. We had a family filled Christmas. Blessed. To be a blessing. Holidays were sweet times. A little story from them: We did a Friendsgiving one night and met some friends of friends. One guy asked to hold Leo and then offered to keep him while Brad and I got food and ate. It was a beautifully weird feeling to plate my food with Brad and sit down and eat while hearing Leo's happy noises from the couch. Leo was chatting away and the guy was so great with him. It was so wonderful to practice setting aside the voices of, "Is he frus
Read more

A Little More of an Update

 Hiya' Friends! These are some things regarding Leo's care, appointments, therapies, development, etc. that are rolling around in our heads these days. Eating, Pukes, Weight We haven't seen nutrition or GI in a little bit. We've monitored his weight in our own way or through some of the appointments we have had. It's not at a totally great place, but I'm not too concerned. He is mostly going up, but has some up and downs just not drastic. Brad and I are confident in feeding Leo some food that we blend up ourselves (instead of the packaged) in order to expand our options of what we can feed him. We are not replacing meals with what we have blended, but just introducing new ingredients into his system in a more significant portion (60mls of blended food). This is a bit of a time-consuming process and so far we have run into one ingredient that did not seem to sit well in his system. He did not seem to adjust to it even with some time. We have seen that feeding him
Read more