Category: Pictures

Happy 2-week Bday! 10-15-08

Wouldn’t ya know, Rudy spent the entire day yesterday sleeping until 11:30pm!!!  Just as we packed up all our bags and started heading out the door for the night, he opened his eyes and was wide awake ready to play!!!  So, we put our bags down and hung out a while longer not wanting to miss a chance to interact with him…we enjoyed the 30 minutes we had to celebrate with him on his 2 week birthday before WE began to nod off.  Ha Ha  Today he is holding steady with no major improvements or setbacks.  The longer he stays on the ventilator, the longer it will take to get him off but the doctors remain hopeful.  We appreciate your continued prayers for progress in this area…yesterday’s echo-cardiogram confirmed that structurally his insides are sound!  Go, Rudy, Go!!!

Two Weeks and Counting…

It’s so hard to believe that Rudy is two weeks old today!  The days have blurred together since we’ve been here and it’s amazing how fast time passes.  At week two, we find ourselves continuing to wait…to wait for Rudy’s kidneys to kick in, to wait for the ventilator to be taken out, to wait for all the numbers to be where they need to be.  They tried taking Rudy off the ventilator yesterday and he lasted about 10 minutes.  It was concerning to us but the doctors said it is pretty normal to make short attempts like that to exercise the lungs and make gradual steps toward getting him off completely.  It’s getting a little hard for me to watch the patients on either side of us come and go and not get discouraged but we keep reminding ourselves that this isn’t a race and Rudy is doing well for his situation.   

Rudy received his first toy this week…a gift from the Child Life Office here at the hospital.  He’s now the proud owner of a musical aquarium that we fastened to his monitor rig.  It bubbles as the little fish sway back and forth to classical tunes.  It’s actually quite soothing and I find myself getting lulled to sleep in the late afternoon right along with Rudy!  Ha Ha  He likes it alot…he was quite alert the day he got it and when we turned it on for the first time he began to kick and move his hands around and his eyes were fixated on it!  It was so fun to see him react to it!!!  So now his view is a little less sterile and a bit more fun. 

Rolf and I are doing well although I’m a bit steamed because he got mistaken for a UCLA student yesterday when we walked down to the Student Union to run a couple of errands and on Sunday I got mistaken for Max’s grandmother!!!!!!  NO FAIR!!!  I know I’m looking a bit haggered these days but come on…not to mention Rolf has alot more gray hair than me!!!!  Anyway, my ego has taken a hit but my postpartum body is bouncing back quickly.  🙂

Please continue to pray for steady progress and for our patience with Rudy’s timeline.  His kidney function is holding steady, but will take time to get where it needs to.  As he’s taking breast milk well through his feeding tube, the next milestone will be to get off the ventilator and have the breathing tube removed.

Okay, today was tough…

Hello dear ones, 

How wonderful it has been to read all the comments made on Rudy’s Beat the past couple of days…it feels like we’ve been on this really wild ride but in slow motion since early Wednesday morning when I realized Rudy was on his way!  We’ve had 3 days of some amazing ups and downs and we’ve really only just begun this journey!  Your continued prayers and comments on the blog have been such an encouragement and fun distraction. 

Today, I admit, was the toughest so far.  Today was discharge day and even though I’ve known for quite some time that getting discharged with Rudy in arm was not going to be our reality, when the time came to officially “leave” the hospital without him, I was overwhelmed with grief.  I was given a mountain of pamphlets and brochures in my “postpartum packet” that didn’t apply to my situation and a sweet little diaper bag that was quickly emptied of all baby stuff by the lactation nurse and promptly filled with breast pump supplies and storage bottles.  Not that I blame the staff for doing their normal discharge routine, but every step of the procedure was a heavy reminder of the fact we weren’t going home but to a hotel room and we weren’t going home with Rudy.

Instead, I walked the long corridor from the maternity unit to the CTICU with my bags in hand to “set up shop” in Rudy’s room.  A bright spot in my day was getting to hold Rudy’s sweet little left foot that was now free of a monitor and tape.   Another truly bright spot was seeing Wilson, Max and Olivia who took a day off from school to meet their brother!  Their hugs never felt better and although seeing Rudy for the first time was a bit disturbing, they quickly warmed up to him and had a nice visit. 

And so, we enter a new phase in this journey…it’s a little hard to process it all right now so I’ll wait to share some of the details of Rudy’s condition and upcoming surgery on Monday at a later time but even in the midst of the grief and exhaustion, we continue to experience God’s amazing grace and are so grateful for His presence with us.