The Journey of James Weston

Wednesday, July 21st, 2021 This day last year James as a Blastocyst (180 cells) was transferred into Mom's uterus! There was a 49% chance that he would implant. He has defied all odds since the beginning and every step of the way! 💪 This is a picture of James as a Blastocyst. Not everyone has a baby picture this early! What's really crazy is that James was first created back in March 2019 when Mom had her aspiration surgery. That's when they retrieve the eggs to undergo Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). In the ICSI process, a tiny needle, called a micropipette, is used to inject a single sperm into the center of the egg. After James grew for 5 days into a Blastocyst, he was then frozen for a whole year just waiting for the day he was chosen by the embryologist for implantation! Below is an example of the IVF process and how it's normal to lose anywhere between 35-60% at each stage in the process.  Mom & Dad's IVF Journey in 2019 19 eggs retrieved 12 matu...

Tuesday, July 20th, 2021 If Mom wasn't here, what would have happened? Would we even know what went down? Forgotten Feeds... First, it's 10pm Monday night and the feed pumping is alarming. Mom let the new nurse know that the alarm is going off and she needs more milk. This is a continuous feed. She let's Mom know that she actually didn't have any thawed but it should only take 5 minutes. At 11pm, she pops her head in and asks if we need anything. Mom reminds her that we are still waiting on the milk. She then realized she forgot again. So James didn't get fed his 40mls that hour. This was also the time he did his LTV trial on night shift. No Vent Heaters... At 8:45am, Mom noticed the Vent Heater was off and his circuit was cold. The heater runs warm oxygen through the tubing. Humidification is needed by all patients requiring mechanical ventilation via an artificial airway. Heated humidifiers operate actively to increase the heat and water vapor content of inspired ...

Monday, July 19th, 2021 Weigh-in: 6580 grams (14lb 8oz) Measurements Head: 40 cm Abdominal: 48 cm Length: 53.5 cm (looking to get a more accurate measurement by using a board next time) Vent Settings FiO2: 35 PEEP: 12 Rate: 25 Tidal Volume: 60 Today the plan was that Dad was going to relieve Mom from 11:00am-2:30pm, so he just happened to be on his way to the hospital in time for the LTV trial at 11am. It was great that we could both be there to witness the success! James did great on his first try. The LTV is an older home ventilator, everyone calls it a dinosaur. The only concern is that the pulmonologist mentioned that they don't make replacement parts for it anymore. After a lot of Facebook research Mom has seen that there are quite a few babies that have failed on the trilogy but have been successful on the LTV. So maybe they're still making parts for them? The difference in these 2 ventilators are the circuits single vs dual limb. Currently James is on the Hospital Servo ...

Sunday, July 18th, 2021 Last night Dad slept at the hospital so that Mom could get a night of sleep at home. Not so much for the bed but that it's more than 3 hours of sleep. Can one full night of sleep a week get Mom all caught up to continue 6 days of 21 hour shifts? We will see.  Around 1:30pm Dad did trach ties with the nurse. As the nurse suctioned him he gagged and then spit up. This wasn't really a vomit as much as a spit up. They were unable to continue with trach care and would resume again at 3:15pm along with a bath. We held off on the miralax this morning as well as the milk of mag last night, but we did continue with the prune juice today at 11am and 4pm.  Around 5pm, Mom noticed that his G-tube was leaking through his onesie so she changed that redressed his stoma with a new split gauze. He had several wet diapers also. At 6:20pm James had a massive diaper. Mom was washing her pumping bottles and syringes and heard James make some of the loudest bowel movements. ...