Caelan James Perry pictures

Caelan James Perry; July 1, 2008 at 1053 pm;

5 pounds 9 ounces; 19"

Minutes after he was born





A couple of hours later in NICU. He had a collapsed left lung- pretty pink though! The thing on his face is a CPAP- just like what adults with sleep apnea wear- so that is no big deal... everything else looks bad but isn't- mostly monitoring stuff.

Barbara (birth mother) and her mom

This is Tom Bonhoerst- he is the social worker with Catholic Human Services that we have been working with for 9 months- awesome guy! We're in NICU just watching Caelan.

Hey Little Guy! I love this cause his eyes are open! This was around 3pm on Wednesday July 2nd. We had gotten a call around 3am (right after we went to bed the night he was born)- they had put in a chest tube for the collapsed lung and intubated and put him on a vent to put medicine straight into his lungs- they told us he would be on that for 24-48 hours. NOPE! Not our little guy- he was off that in less than 10 hours- that's my boy! So these are from a couple hours after that- you can see his face now! He is only on a nasal canula for oxygen now- the chest tube is still in though.

This one was taken in night mode- we can't use a flash in NICU. The color ones simply have the flash turned off... but it still shines light in his eyes as it focuses... too much stimulus is not good for preemies so we do some of them in night mode. It is easier to get him with eyes open too.

These were also after his diaper change- I got to do it! It was that gooey, tarry, sticky stuff- meconium. It was cool though to be able to take care of him.... the nurse will let us do whatever we are comfortable with... I told her I will do WHATEVER she will let me do! I just don't want to cross any boundaries. So I took his temp, relocated his pulse monitor, changed him a couple of times. The challenging part is doing those things through the little holes on the sides of the incubator... and then around all the wires. Awesome though! He did NOT like having a dirty diaper! Once that was taken care of- he settled down and then just laid there looking around. I could sit and just watch him forever- and I love seeing his eyes open!

Because of the things he has been dealing with... he hasn't eaten by bottle. Once all of this thing with his lung settles down, they will work on his feeding. Right now it is just through a little tube in his nose. So... he has to graduate out of the chest tube and into feeding class! Once he can eat, I am sure we can go home. Hopefully no more than a week.

So that is the latest in our little world... our son is only 28 hours old right now. Wow. Can't wait to see him tomorrow.. cant wait to HOLD him!

Thank you all for the continuous prayers and support! We love you all and blessings to you!

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