Valentine Weekend 2.17.07






Hi! We had a great long and relaxing weekend in Yakima with the grandparents. We had time to relax, eat great food, get some sunshine and go for long walks! Burke continues to grow and eat well. He sat up in his booster seat at the table with us and it was fun to feed him green beans while we ate! He fell in love with his little soccer ball and now it goes everywhere with him...like daddy like son! We are so proud of Burke and enjoying him more each day. Life is normalizing for us more lately and we are getting more sleep which makes everything better. We are really concentrating on teaching Burke all about words and sounds...we do lots of "radio commentary" all day long. Basically we talk to Burke about everything we do, see and think and try to link sounds, sights, music and expressions to our words. It's exhausting to talk so much and try to think of things and ways to describe the world to him but exciting to watch him starting to comprehend. This week we got an FM system for Burke's hearing aids. Basically either Nate or I wear a small lapel microphone and a wireless transmitter box that clips on the belt. This allows us to transmit our voice directly into a receiver attached to his hearing aids thus direclty into his ears which allows him to hear us more clearly in noisy situations or when there is a lot of feedback from his hearing aids. He seems to be responding well to our voices and we can talk to him up to 150ft away! It's great to be able to comfort him with my voice from the other room...he definitally calms down when he hears our voices!
Well...better get to bed! Uncle Bubba (Tim) comes up to visit tomorrow so should be a ton of fun! Love to all of you and thanks for keeping up with us and please continue to pray for us and especially for Burke's hearing improvement and continued improvement in feeding. Praise God for his grace in our lives...it's because of Him that Burke is so full of life!

Comments

Anonymous said…
What make are his hearing aids and if you had to wear them, would you cover them with your hair and why?
5:13 AM
Anonymous said…
Oh, he's too cute! So glad to hear that things are getting better and better each day. We're still praying for you guys and look forward to the day we get to meet little Burke!
1:46 PM
Anonymous said…
deanna and I love his new photos. The last photo with Chris is great. He has an interesting look on his face. He looks happy and is getting cutier by the moment. -dn
6:17 PM
Anonymous said…
oh so cute....looks like trouble to me...Think I need to come up and snuggle.
nina
6:17 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

9-26-06 We're Going HOME!

YES, it's official!...we're GOIN HOME! OH MY! In exactly three months Burke has managed three major surgeries, two major procedures,3 nosocomial (hospital acquired) infections, two rounds in the NICU, a million x-rays and florostudies, rounds and rounds of expert opinions and even more trials of ways to feed and gain weight. As of today, Burke has doubled his weight to 8 lbs and is taking in the appropriate amount of milk by a bottle (binky trainer good bye!)! His esophagus and stomach are slowly but surely starting to coordinate themselves appropriately and Burke is now HUNGRY when his tummy is empty and HAPPY when his tummy is full of mommy's milk! We've managed to convince Children's Hospital Surgical Team, Dieticians, Residents and Feeding therapists that premies with surgical complicaton CAN grow and gain weight on breastmilk alone through a process called Lactoengineering...I've even been asked to publish an article for the Journal of Human Lactation a...
Read more

7-15-06 I'm so cute

Image
It was another good day today. Burke rested peacefully and continues to breathe well...so well that they discontinued the oxygen that was being given through his nasal canula (yay..one more tube gone). He's also in the process of being weaned from the morphine...it's a slow process but the doctors have reassured us this is very common and the babies do just fine without any long term side effects! We are super proud of his progress. Monday he will be transfered to Children's Hospital...we are very excited to be closer to home. Please continue to pray that the transfer goes well and that he responds well to being weaned off the morphine. Thanks...we appreciate you all so much!
Read more

8-20-06 Surviving the Hospital

Image
Well...we're still hanging in here at Children's and trucking along in the right direction (homeward bound). We're still just "talking" about going home so there are no official plans yet but we hope it will be sometime later this week. Burke's official due date is Aug 24th so we hope to be going home around then! In order to get there, Burke must gain weight steadily and have stable breathing. His weight gain has been slow but is on the rise and he weighs 6lbs as of yesterday! He continues to have 1 to 2 episodes of oxygen desaturations during the early morning hours which has been somewhat concerning as the doctors can't quite figure out why they're occuring. Burke hasn't been negatively affected by these episodes and doesn't require extra breathing support/oxygen which means his body is strong enough to recover nicely on his own. An expert plans to visit us tomorrow to help uncover the meaning behind these episodes and we pray she'll b...
Read more