Thursday, January 31, 2008

Almost Home!

Ashton should be coming home tonight or tomorrow morning. He has to eat for 48 hours without any problems and he is clear to come home. The nurses feed him every 3 hours and so it's nice that he's already on a schedule for feedings. The only downside is they feed him every 3 hours even through the night so we're going to have to try to get him to sleep longer at night. He already loves his binky. He passed the car seat test and we're just waiting for them to tell us he's coming home. From what I hear they don't tell you until he can come home so we just have to be prepared to bring him home every time we visit. Last night they asked me if I had brought clothes for him to wear but I told them I didn't know I could. So he's in some clothes that they keep at the hospital and it makes him look so big being in normal clothes. I guess I need to start taking the diaper bag so he has something to wear when he comes home!

Monday, January 28, 2008


We were able to hold Ashton on Sunday. We haven't been able to hold him since he was born on Monday the 21st so we were really excited. Yesterday they took out his chest tube and all of the iv's except for one in his foot. They aren't doing the PIC line anymore because they're going to start bottle feeding him. We tried bottle feeding yesterday but he was sedated from getting the chest tube out so he wasn't awake enough to know what to do. He just needs to keep his oxygen levels up and learn how to eat and he can come home. We're still hoping that by this weekend we will be taking him home. Tuesday we will be taking his car seat in so that he can do the car seat test. Any baby that spends time in the nicu has to sit in a car seat for 2 hours. They will monitor him and make sure he is able to keep his oxygen levels up and stay stable. We also had to watch 2 videos on CPR and shaken baby syndrome before he can be discharged.

I can't believe Ashton is a week old already. It has been a long, crazy week but at the same time the time has gone by so fast. Matt took last week off of work and school and now he's back at school and work so it will be hard coordinating times to go and see Ashton. I also am back to managing the apartments. It's hard knowing we can't be at the hospital as much but we are excited to bring him home soon!

Saturday, January 26, 2008


No more ventilator! Saturday morning we were shocked to hear they were going to take him off of the ventilator. When we came back at night it was gone. The sedation medications still haven't completely worn off and so he's on regular oxygen probably until Sunday morning. He just hasn't fully woken up yet. He's getting the tube out of his chest tomorrow and so we will finally be able to hold him. I'm so excited. He does have to get a PIC line put in tomorrow which is a small tube that goes through a vein in his arm up to his heart but it's just so that they don't have to continue putting in new iv's all the time and they can just use the one line.

Because he isn't eating formula or any real food other than the iv fluids his body can't flush out the belirubin so he has jaundice. That's the reason for the florescent light that has been on him for the last 2 days. He should only need it for another day. He gets to wear some foam sunglasses that cover most of his head. We are hoping that next weekend we will get to bring him home. It's hard coming home at night knowing he isn't there with us. But I've told Matt I'm sure I won't want to put him down once we do get to bring him home.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Ashton Connor Snell
6 lbs 5 oz 21 inches
January 21, 2008 8:55am


Ashton came into this world on Monday morning. He was born with a really bad infection and his lungs were a little underdeveloped and so he's currently in the NICU but he's improving everyday. After struggling to breath on his own he blew a hole in his right lung and so they are waiting for the hole to heal. After that they will slowly wean him off of the ventilator and see how he breaths on his own. Then they will have to reteach him to eat since he gets all of his nutrients through the iv. The biggest factor has been the infection which is like pneumonia. They don't know how he got it but they say some babies are just born with it and they don't understand why yet. Because of the antibiotics he's on he'll probably be in the NICU for a total of about 2 weeks. We're hoping that next weekend he might get to come home.
We weren't expecting anything like this and it has been really hard to deal with but it's getting easier everyday. Everyday we are falling more and more in love with Ashton. We are always over at the hospital visiting him and talking to him. Most of the time he's pretty sedated but he responds to us and our voices. He looks so perfect and is such a fighter. The ventilator he has been on is meant to take over his breathing but he keeps breathing on his own at a different pace than the ventilator. He wants to prove he can still breath on his own.
Kaleb can't go into the NICU because of RSV season and he came to the hospital just as they were taking him away so the picture with him and Ashton is the only time he saw his little brother. There is a teddy bear that Kaleb gave to Ashton that sits by him and we show Kaleb the pictures of Ashton with the bear. We'll try to keep everyone updated. We know that everything will be fine and he just needs a little time to heal.

Friday, January 11, 2008

A New Year


This was taken a couple of days ago at 35 weeks. My last doctors appointment he said I was 1 cm and 50% effaced and just wants to make sure I make it to 37 weeks. It's crazy to think he could come in a couple of weeks but he could also wait another 5 weeks to make his entrance.
We always spend New Years up at Sherwood Hills Resort (about 10 miles outside of Logan) with my family. We had a lot of fun. We did a lot of swimming, watching movies and we even went bowling a couple of times. At the bowling place they had one of the tattoo machines and because my cousins were getting them Kaleb had to get some too. He had one on his arm and one on his back. As you can see he loved showing off his muscles and tattoos when he went swimming.


This is at Golden Corral. Kaleb loves the cupcakes and he made them look so good that even Matt had to try one.