Luke is 6 weeks old

Our little Luke is growing like a weed; after starting out so small-- 4lbs. 7.6oz,

and now after only 6 weeks he is pushing the 8 pound mark.

Luke is doing great!! He is such a sweet baby boy, he is a cuddler and loves to curl up almost in a ball and lay on our chests. When you hold him he'll look up and just smile (it's probably gas most of the time, but we'll say that he is smiling at us). The only times that he really cries is when he is hungry or needs a diaper change; he seems to be a pretty content little guy. But don't get me wrong, when he is mad, he has a high-pitched cry that can pierce an eardrum. But we think we will keep him!! Luke got circumcized on Monday, he had been a little fussier than normal, but is doing much better now.

Back to the hospital with Luke

Sorry it has been so long since the last update, but life got very crazy AGAIN. One week after Luke was released to come home - he had to go back to the ER. On the 30th of August, we noticed him acting different, he seemed to be more tired and not really wanting to eat very much. I started to get concerned, but then we remembered what the nurses told us; sometimes preemie babies get very sleepy and we would have to "convince" him to eat. So after a little while of trying to get him to eat and not having any luck, we put him in his bouncy chair and we were going to try again in a little while. At this point my "mother's instinct" was telling me to make a phone call to an on-call NICU nurse - something wasn't right, he wasn't acting right. So as I was looking up the phone #, Matt yelled and said he thought Luke was turning blue. Matt put him on the floor to do CPR, but then Luke started breathing on his own. Since he was breathing on his own we were going to drive him ourselves to the ER at the hospital that is a few miles away. But on our way Matt called 911 to have them notify the hospital, but the operator told us to pull over & let the ambulance come to us; there was a fire station 1-2 blocks away - so we told the operator we were going there. About 6-7 fireman came running out of the firehouse and began to check Luke out and asked us exactly what happened. Luke was having some difficulty breathing by this time, so they gave an oxygen mask to help him out a little. Then an ambulance came & took us to the hospital.

We spent a couple hours at this ER as they tried to figure what was going on with him. They began running lots and lots of tests, hoping to narrow down what was causing him to be so sick. A nurse practitioner and several nurses were brought down from the NICU; this was because these particular doctors and nurses didn't have tons of experience when dealing with newborns (especially preemies). By this point it was decided that since Luke was so little and still so young, that he would be airlifted to a hospital that was better suited to take care of him. So they told us that he would be taken downtown to the Phoenix Children's Hospital (this hospital is located just down the road from St. Joseph's - where he was born). There wasn't room for either one of us to ride in the helicopter, so we had to make the long 45 minute drive to downtown Phoenix.

At this time, my sister Brittany was picking up my mom from the airport. My mom was coming out to help us with Lilly and Luke for a little while. So they met us at the hospital. Then after a few more hours in this ER of running tests. At this point, we were told that he had an infection and the doctors were pretty sure that it was a Urinary Tract Infection; but they were also testing for Pneumonia and Meningitis. We were very scared at this point since all three of those are so dangerous for a baby that is his age and size. After they intubated him and stabilized him, Luke was moved to the Pediatric ICU (the PICU). He was watched very closely; then it was determined that he had a UTI that went to the bloodstream (Urosepsis).

After a few days, Luke was doing so well that they decided to take the breathing tube out and then after another day or so he was moved to a regular room. He stayed there for about a week to finish out his 10 day antibiotic cycle. He got a little spoiled when we weren't able to be at the hospital; we were told that the nurses passed him around and fought over who was giving him his next feeding. The Phoenix Children's Hospital was wonderful, we were so grateful that he got some wonderful nurses and doctors. They took wonderful care of him (& of us) and treated him as if he was their own child. This is such a wonderful blessing when we were so worried for his health and when we were not able to be up at the hospital 24 hours a day. He came home on the 10th of September and has been doing great. He is eating well and growing like crazy!!

** I know this is a lot of info, but the next several updates will have lots of pics included.**