And it's off!

If you have been following the video updates on FB or G+, then you already know that CJ has been taken off the nasal canula.



While this is a significant step toward his going home, there is still quite a bit of improvement that is needed before he can come home. The biggest hurdle that needs to be cleared is his feedings.

Currently, he is only being allowed to nipple - feed from a bottle - once a day. Every nurse, so far, has said that he is ready for that frequency to increase; however, those orders haven't changed in several days.

That being said, Jess has had a couple of fruitful conversations with some nurses. One of the nurses even told her that because she is the mom, she has a certain level of authority when it comes to CJ and CJ's orders. Having had to exercise this authority already, we already knew this; but it was reassuring to Jess to hear this from a nurse that we both trust and respect.

Somewhat emboldened, Jess has since broached the topic of his feedings with CJ's nurse and the suggestion has been received favorably. His nurse tonight said that if the Dr calls in tonight, she will ask him whether those orders can be changed. If he doesn't call in before she leaves, she will leave a note with the next nurse letting her know that CJ is ready to nipple more than once a day and to let the Dr know. Since we know that the Dr is heavily influenced by the input from the nurses, this is definitely a good sign that his orders will soon change. In the even the nurses fail to speak with the Dr, we fully intend to bring our concerns up to him the moment we see him tomorrow.

Now that you know where he stands, here are some photos and a couple of videos.



Here is the first video of CJ. He is wearing a dinosaur sleeper that kinda' looks like it is camouflage.

From Cj's Videos

This next video is a video of when Franky and Sissy were able to see him. While this wasn't the first time that they had seen him, they were tickled nonetheless to see "their" baby CJ...

From Cj's Videos

Twelve Days and Counting...

Well, it's been twelve days since Baby CJ was born and lots of things have happened in the interim.

Since my last post, Baby CJ has improved by leaps and bounds. It was only a few days ago that they first start feeding him breast milk, and today he is already being fed 50MLs at each feeding!

Not only has he started to feed really well, the only kind of respiratory assistance he has is the nasal canula. When he came off the vent, he went straight to the C Pap, and from there he was placed on the nasal canula. At some point after he had been put on the nasal canula a nurse made the call to put him back on the C Pap; but after further review, it was determined that the difficulty in breathing had stemmed from a rather stuffy nose. So, so long as he keeps his nose clean - pun intended - we will not be seeing him on the C Pap again any time soon.

Another good improvement that our little guy has seen is that he is no longer on the Billy light. They have been checking his Billy levels every time they run his labs and while it did go back up a little yesterday, the levels had not risen sufficiently enough to warrant being placed back under the light.

While the pictures and video in this post don't reflect it, CJ no longer has all his IVs! In the event he did not hit 50Mls for his feedings, they were going to be putting in a PIC line; however, since he hit that threshold this afternoon, he is no longer in need of the PIC line. Praise the LORD! :)

As for the rest of the family, we are all doing well. While we know how things run around here, things are a bit different this time around. This time around I have had to work throughout the week, only being able to spend time here on my days off, while Jess' and the girls have been staying here in Marquette in the Beacon House. Speaking of which, I'd like to take this time publicly thank my father in law for making it possible for Jess' mom and sister to be up here. It has been a tremendous blessing and a great help. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be able to go in and see Baby CJ together. I'd also like to thank my parents as they, too, have been a great help! If it weren't for them, who knows what I would have done with the girls while I Was at work...

That being said, I know that you all did not come here to be bored to death, so without any further adieu, here are some pictures and a video! :)

From Cj's Videos

A Video of CJ

Here's a video of CJ. In the video you can see me in the upper left hand corner playing with my nook. Actually, I wasn't playing; I was doing my Bible reading as well as looking up meanings to my kiddo's names.

The name Chad - which, incidentally, is the name that CJ and I now share ;) - means battle and great warrior. Never could this name be more appropriate than now. Every day spent in the NICU is a battle and this little guy needs all the allies he can get!

From Cj's Videos

He Came Out!

What more can I say? As Lil’ Sam's words so succinctly suggest, Chad Alan Fluegge Jr – AKA CJ – was born today at 11:06AM. He weighed in at 6lb 1.1oz and he measured 19” in length.

While nearly double the size of his oldest sister, he is most definitely a preemie. With only 34.5 weeks under his belt, his lungs are not yet fully developed. Although Mom and baby were given a steroid shot at the beginning of this week, that alone was not enough to bring the lungs to full term in under five days. That being said, according to his nurses, he is doing great!

In case any of you were wondering, we are in the exact same hospital with this little guy that we were in with Lil’ Sam – aka Franky – when she was born. While there are some bittersweet memories here, we couldn’t have ended up in a better place. The OB that delivered CJ was the same one that delivered Franky; and in my opinion, he is an outstanding doc. Not only did we have the same OB, but Jess’ nurse was the same nurse in attendance when Sam was born!

As if that didn’t take the cake, the nurse that worked on Sam all night long that first night; she, too, was on duty this afternoon. She remembered vividly Sam’s first hours and as a result she immediately started treatment that hopefully will preclude some of the things that we went through with Sam. Thank the LORD for people with good memories!

With all that good news, we also had a sweet reunion with the NICU’s head doc, Dr Frei. She came into our room and she immediately recognized which one was Sam. For a minute there, it looked like she was going to cry. We spent a few minutes reminiscing old times and then Dr Frei spent some time talking with Sam. To this day, if you ask Sam who Dr Frei is, she will tell you that Dr Frei gave her a bear when she was sick in the hospital. When she gets older she’ll get the whole scoop, I’m sure.

So, now onto CJ.

As I said he is a preemie, and as such, his lungs are not yet fully developed. He is currently on a ventilator; however, they have actually started to wean him off of it. Aside from the ventilator, they have also started him on some of the same meds that Sam had when she was here. One of the things that they did differently with CJ in comparison to Sam is that they immediately started him on some meds to help prevent blood clotting. In case you don’t remember, one of the things that prevented Sam from coming home so soon was that she had developed a blood clot, presumably, due to the central line they had set up.

There, now that we have that covered, lets get onto some pictures of our cute little guy!

In closing, I'd like to share a verse that the Lord gave me this morning before CJ was born. II Samuel 10:12 says, "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good." The thing that really touches me about this verse is the way in which God ties it to me and CJ. When I read the words, "and the LORD do that which seemeth him good," I knew that, come what may, everything was going to be alright.

Good night, Son - see you in the morning! :)

For those of you who can't see the flash slideshow here ya' go:

CJ's Birthday

Fishing and More Fishing...

While it's been a few years since I've done any amount of fishing, it seems as though all I have done this year is fish.

My in laws have been up to visit us on two separate occasions this year, and each time we have managed to squeeze in a substantial amount of fishing. The first time around, we just went up the road a ways and fished off of a pier. Since it was earlier in the year, the shallows were the warmest part of the lake, so the fishing was really good. However, since the rest of the lake has warmed up, we have had to seek out better fishing holes.

Enter: Pricket Lake

Photo courtesy of: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/54197534.jpg

Pictured above is the dam that forms Pricket Lake.

About a month ago, a contractor came into my workplace and through him I learned that they were lowering the waters at Pricket Lake so that they could do concrete work not only on the dam, but on the power house as well. While this may seem like useless information to the casual listener, it was a gold nugget to someone like me, who not only knew the area, but also what would happen to all the fish.

While the logs pictured below are a wonderful fish habitat all year round, they also become one of the very few havens for the smaller fish when the water levels are allowed to drop. A key point to draw from this is that where the little fish are, that's where the bigger fish are going to be as well.

Photo courtesy of: http://v1.cache5.c.bigcache.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1122120.jpg?redirect_counter=1

We went out to Pricket Lake last Tuesday for the first time, and since then we have been there we have literally caught hundreds of fish. Granted, most of those fish were pan fish, but we also caught some monster crappie,  many rock bass, a couple of keeper-size small mouth bass, a 22" walleye, as well as a bunch of pike.

The in laws are slated to be here for another week, so I'm sure that our fishing days are far from over...If we catch any dandies, I'll try to get a photo to put up here.

Blogilo Test Without a Photo

Test post without a photo...

Ok, so posting to WP from within Blogilo does appear to work - this is a good thing.

Now, if I can only figure out how to get Blogilo and this blog to play nicely when it comes to media...

Long Time No See...

Well, it's been almost forever since I posted, so I figured that now was just as good a time as any to post an update on our family.

Things are going pretty well up here in the UP. Work at Michel's & Son's has picked up considerably these last couple of weeks, for which we are very thankful.

For those of you that don't know, we just discovered the other day that we will be having a baby boy. Now, to be honest, I looked at the ultrasound picture and I can't make head nor tail of it; I may as well be staring at a stereogram. That being said, I will say that I take both Jess' word, and the ultrasound tech's word for it.

Last week, Jessica and I went up to the Tori - finnish for outdoor market - in Hancock and peddled our home made wares...The weather was a bit crummy last wednesday, so the foot traffic wasn't as good as it usually is, so we didn't make as much money as we had hoped. Today, however, Jess' returned to the Tori with even more home made goodies and gave it another shot. Since the weather was better, there were a lot more shoppers and as a result, she made $21!!

That might not sound like a lot, but when you don't have a lot of variety, that $21 is pretty good. The Tori is every Wednesday and Saturday; and while we didn't go last Saturday, we are fully intending on going to it this Saturday.

While Jess' was at the Tori, I got to stay at home and baby sit the girls. Sam likes raspberries, so we went out and spent some time in the raspberry patch eating raspberrys... After that, we went and sat at their little picnic table. While we were sitting there, Sam got this bright idea that we should play happy birthday...

We didn't have any cake, but we did have some ice cream, so after I put Cynthia down for a nap, I got the ice cream and obliged Sam with a game of happy birthday. Check out the pics.