December 2008

Well its been a while and a lot has happened! Zachary has had a few more surgeries since my last update including having his hernia repaired and a circumcision yesterday. He is recovering well from that. We are anxiously awaiting Christmas time! It is such a great time of the year and we are so thankful that we have such a close family to spend it with! Zachary now weighs nearly 15 pounds!!! He is so big and just smiling all the time! He loves to spend time in his Johnny Jumper and excersaucer. He is one growing boy! He will be continuing with early intervention and therapy as the new year comes. We have set a goal for him to be sitting on his own by the time his birthday comes around! Thank you all for continuing to check up on us! Love to all during this holiday season and remember to keep CHRIST in Christmas this year!

October 29, 2008

Hello everyone! Zachary has been having some exciting days lately! Everyday he seems to be stronger and progressing! At his last doctors visit he weighed 13 pounds!!! Also, they took his measurements and based it on an 8 month old. His length and height were in the 21% range which is great! I'm sure its no surprise to anyone that his head is in the 80% range!! Ha Ha! That's a Stafford for ya! Also, he is eating peas and carrots and really enjoys them! YUCK! He enjoys sitting up and is gaining a lot of strength in his neck! We are so excited that he is doing so well! We love you all! God Bless!

October 7, 2008

Hello there! Zachary is doing so great! His last doctors check up went wonderful and the latest surgery has seemed to be a good one for him! He weighs 12 pounds 3 ounces now and the doctor still says that he would like to see him bigger. He is now eating rice cereal twice a day and making more of a mess than ever! He has truly been so wonderful lately and we are so thankful! Praise God for saving our little boy! We love you all!

What a time!!

Well we have been in TN for 5 weeks now and have been admitted to the hospital 4 times! whew! This last time, we were in the hospital for 12 days because Zachary had another infection in his CSF. For that time, they put in some external shunts to drain the fluid while he fought the infection.

We are home now and he will be on IV antibiotics for the next three weeks. I get to play nurse for a little while! ;) We are confident that these shunts will last us for a while! Please continue to pray for that!

On a happier note, Zachary is starting to smile more often and not just because of gas anymore!! :) I will hopefully be able to update with happier news in the future!

Another surgery...

As you know, Zachary went into surgery last weekend to have his shunt revised. Against my better judgement, I went ahead and took him home on the doctors orders. Yesterday morning after a feeding, Zachary started to choke and I called 911 to take him to the hospital. When they assessed him, they told me I had waited too long to bring him into the hospital and that his shunt was not working properly and he needed immediate surgery. They took him into surgery yesterday afternoon and he did beautifully! I can definitely tell a difference this time. One of the signs that the shunt isn't working properly is that his eyes will look downward consistently. Now after the surgery, I can see his beautiful eyes and he just looks so much healthier. He now has two shunts. One on the left, and one on the right. We are so thankful that the Lord can speak wisdom into us and next time, I'm not going to ingnore it. Thank you all for your continued prayers for Zachary and his health!

Long time coming....

Well as you can see it has been a tremendously long time since we have posted on here! There has been a lot going on since little Zachary came home! First off, we have finally gotten home to Tennessee and are in the process of buying our first home! Also, after being home for a week, I measured Zachary's head circumference and it was up 2.5 cm in one week. They told me to keep a close eye on that and that it shouldn't be more than 2 a week. Well, I thought I was being over paranoid so I went ahead and took him to the E.R. at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to get him checked out. Turns out my motherly instinct was right on! They took him into surgery the very next morning to fix his shunt cause it had malfunctioned! He recovered beautifully but is still having some pain. He is getting so big! He now weighs 10 pounds 2 ounces! Camden has been such a wonderful big brother! He is constantly on passy duty if Zachary starts to get upset! He says he loves being a big brother! We are truly blessed and are happy we can start to move forward with our lives as a family! Love to all!

Going home!

July 4, 2008

ZACHARY IS HOME!!!!

We are so very excited! We were able to "room in" with him last night to make sure that we could handle taking care of him on our own and everything went fantastic! He was dis-charged at noon today and we have been having a wonderful afternoon with him! We all took an afternoon nap together on the big bed and it was so wonderful! Thank you Thank you THANK YOU for all of your prayers and encouragement! We look at Zachary and see the Lord! Our heavenly Father has been so great to us and it is all due to him! Bless you all!

June 30, 2008

We would like to ask for some special prayers this week. The doctors are doing a head and chest ultrasound this week on Zachary to make sure that everything looks good. If it does, and he starts to gain weight, we are going to do a room-in with him on thursday night to have a trial run through the night with just us to take care of him! AHHH! :) If he does well that night then we will be able to bring him home on Friday!! It may seem selfish, but we need prayers to have this go well so that he can be home with us this week! We will keep you updated! Thanks!

June 28, 2008

It looks like Zachary's stay in the hospital is coming to an end soon!!! The doctor told me on thursday that he sees him going home mid-late next week!!!! We are so excited and hope that this is true! He just has to continue eating well and handling himself without oxygen. He is doing great so far! Right now he only needs the oxygen here and there when he is eating from a bottle. As it stands right now, he won't need to come home on any monitors or oxygen! GOD IS GOOD!! We know that if it wasn't for him, Zachary may have not made it this far. Thank you once again for all of your continued prayers! Lets remember to also thank God for the wonderful miracle we have seen through Zachary!

June 25, 2008

It has been an exciting 24 hours! Zachary is completely off of the oxygen!!! Its so nice to see an almost clean face! He still has the NG tube for those times that he's too tired to eat. He is nursing 6 out of 8 feeds and has to learn to take the other two feeds out of a bottle so that he can come home!! The doctors want him eating at least two bottles a day with a calorie supplement so that he can continue to gain weight. We are all so very anxious to get him home! Please continue to pray peace over us in the last couple of weeks as we are ready to STEAL him away!

June 23, 2008

Zachary is doing WONDERFUL! We want to thank all of you for your continued prayers to get him home! He is currently on 1/8 L of oxygen which is as low as it gets. He has nursed every feed so far today (4) and I will be spending the night at the hospital tonight to see if he doesn't get too tired doing it every feed right now. We are so proud of him! Thanks to all who have sent gifts! They are wonderful and we are VERY appreciative!!

June 18, 2008

Well Zachary got moved to the Intermediate nursery yesterday afternoon! This is a big step for him! The doctors say he is stable enough where they don't have to keep such a close eye on him. We would like to ask you all to please have a prayer focus on him eating. That is the last thing he needs to do in order to come home to us! Thankyou all for all of your continued prayers!

June 17, 2008

We almost have a 7 pound baby on our hands!! Zachary weighs 6 pounds 15 ounces! We are so delighted that he is getting so big! He is on minimal oxygen settings and we are still waiting for him to come completely off any day now. The doctors and nurses are very pleased with his eating as well. He is getting more strength to drink a 2 ounce bottle. He likes his mommy best though! Our oldest, Camden, will be headed back to TN this week to have a vacation at Nana's house! This will allow me the time to really focus on Zachary's eating and getting him home!!

June 11, 2008

Zachary is a big 6 pounds 7.4 ounces today! He is just growing like a little weed! I have been nursing him throughout the day and he does very very well! At night when the nurses try to give him a bottle, he won't take it. Obviously cause its not his mommy! He also has been awake more during the day and enjoying being in the swing and looking at his mobile! We are getting so anxious to get him home!

June 5, 2008

Zachary is currently at 3/4 L of oxygen and doing great on that. Before we know it, he'll be off oxygen all together! We are getting a little anxious at home. We feel like we are on the last stretch and we don't want to go any further... we just want him home NOW!!! Of coarse we'll do what we need to but its been long enough already! Here are some more pictures for you all to enjoy!

F.Y.I.

I was asked by my friends to come up with a list of people to participate in a special kind of baby shower. I thought this would be the best way to inform you all that if you would like to be involved please email me with your address. Thank you so much from all of us!

jcstafford07@yahoo.com

Kenneth, Jenna, Camden, & precious little Zachary!

June 3, 2008

Today was a great day! One of my many best friends, Jane, is in town for the week! Zachary was so happy to have visitors! They have reduced his oxygen flow from 2 liters to 1 liter and he is handling it very well. He is also still doing well with his feedings and should be eating more often from me very soon. We are so excited that he is doing well and he should be coming in 4-6 weeks if all continues to go well! We will keep you informed!

June 1, 2008

Well well WELL!! It has been a mighty exciting and busy week. We are finally back home in our own beds and it is wonderful! Zachary has made a huge improvement this week! It seems that the shunt is what he needed to start getting better! He started eating on Tuesday and did absolutely wonderful! The doctors were worried he wouldn't be able to suck, swallow, and breathe all at the same time but he did it wonderfully! He is up to 4 feedings a day. It is amazing how hard it is for his little body to just do something that seems so simple and normal to us. Also, tonight I was able to give him his first real bath! He was so precious and didn't really know what to think of it. We are so thankful to all of you for being so faithful and for checking in on him so much! Once he is able to eat all of his feedings by mouth, he can come home! We love you!

May 23, 2008

Today is a great day so far! When we arrived at the hospital this morning, they had already taken him off the vent and put him on a high flow nasal cannula! He has had no episodes/spells (drop in heart rate and oxygen). Also, we should know by the end of today if we get to go back to fayetteville tomorrow or not. We are hoping so! The doctor said that if we are not back in Fayetteville this weeken, they will have speech therapy come in on Monday and start getting him ready to eat out of a bottle!! YAY! We are so thankful and blessed!

May 22, 2008

Zachary finally got his shunt place yesterday afternoon and the surgery went great! He now weighs 5 lbs 2 oz!!! Our big fat boy! We are so proud of him! The doctors want to watch him out here for a few days to make sure the incision looks good and is healing properly and then we can go back to Fayetteville and sleep in our own beds! They had to put him back on the vent for his surgery and plan to take him off tomorrow. We are hoping that its all uphill from here! Please just keep praying that he continues to take steps forward and few steps back!

Hello! Zachary had a surprise for us today. When we came in he was on Nasal Cannula again. He is having a lot of episodes but hopefully he will stay on this until his surgery. They Did another ventricular tap today and pulled off 35cc's of spinal fluid. They are hoping this will be the last one before tuesday and so are we! Zachary is at 4 pounds 14.1 ounces today, just 2 ounces away from five pounds. Just amazing!

May 15, 2008

Aunt Sarah came to visit this week and we had a great time! Zachary now weighs 1999 grams! He is a little stinker cause he has to weigh 2000 grams to have his surgery and we were SURE he was going to be over that when they weighed him and he gave us 1999! ha ha! He already has a sense of humor! Also, the doctors came in and talked to us today and told us that he wasn't ready to come off the vent yet and that they would rather wait until after his surgery. Well... Zachary wasn't having that either!! Today while we were visiting, he decided to take the vent tubing out himself! STINKER! Gave me a heart attack!!! He was breathing so well that they decided to keep it out and give him another run on the cpap! He is doing well and should be having his surgery on Monday instead of Friday so please continue to pray!

One more thing... they started dressing Zachary to see if he could hold his own temperature and he has been very successful with that! Praise the Lord!!

My slideshow!

May 11, 2008

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! I had a wonderful mother's day gift when I arrived at the hospital tihs morning! Zachary weighs 4 pounds 1.4 oz today!!!! He is getting so big and we are so very proud of him! I have added a slideshow of the latest pictures since its been so long. He has 6 more days of antibiotics and then he will have his shunt placed. Please continue to pray that his surgery goes well and he doesn't get sick. His last infection came from his surgery so we are hopeful that this time he will recover with flying colors!

May 6, 2008

Sorry its been so long. As you can imagine, its hard to keep this thing updated everyday with all that's going on. Zachary has been doing okay. They took him off of the ventilator last week and had to put him back on it Saturday night. They said that he was trying to hard to breathe and they wanted to give him a little break. I have been sick this week so I'm back in Fayetteville by myself trying to relax and get better so that I can be with Zachary again! Zachary had some professional pictures taken on Sunday afternoon by two photographers that donated their time to do free pictures for families in the NICU. It was so wonderful! They said it would be a couple of weeks before we would have them but I will post them the second I do! Since we have arrived at UNC, Zachary has doubled in weight! He now weighs just under 1600 grams! That's 3 lbs 7oz. ! The doctors have told us that he will definitely need to have a shunt placed for the swelling and he will have that his entire life. We are bummed out but we knew that it was a possibility. He will still be able to have a normal life with the shunt, he just can't play any high contact sports. We are still in the clear from the meningitis and as soon as he finishes his antibiotics, they will place the shunt and send us back to Cape Fear Valley in Fayetteville. We are so blessed that he is doing so much better! I will try and be better at updating you all! We love you!

April 29, 2008

Today was a WONDERFUL day! It has been well over 72 hours and the culture for Zachary's infection is still negative!!! They are going to continue to watch it for the next few days just to make sure. Also, they did a MRI on him this morning to make sure that there were no pockets of bacteria built up on the damaged part of his brain and the doctors said that the results looked exactly like they wanted them to look and that everything checked out!!!! PRAISE GOD! We have had nothing but great news today! Also, he weighs 2 pounds 13 ounces and is getting bigger!! We will keep you all updated on the continued results of his bacteria sample. Love you all!!

April 26, 2008

Zachary is doing well today. They took the stitches out of his head this morning and it looks so much better! Ken and I looked at the ultrasound results from his head scan and it turns out that 30% of the left side of his brain is damaged from the bleed that he had earlier in his life. It also showed that the ventricles are still swelling up and they are doing ventricular taps on him to drain the fluid when it builds up. The doctor told us that he can almost guarantee that he will need a shunt placed for the rest of his life. We appreciate all of the prayers and kind thoughts through this process! We all need to remember that these doctors are practicing medicine and that there is only one who knows what his life will be like. We all need to keep our faith strong and trust that God will have mercy on him.

April 22, 2008

Zachary is doing well today. The only huge update is that we're still waiting on this bacteria to go away so that he can continue his recovery. Please continue to pray for his brain developement. The doctors said that not only did the bleeding damage his brain, but the bacteria can also attack the dead tissue and kill more tissue in his brain. The doctors also said that other then this infection, Zachary is a really healthy baby! Praise God!

April 20, 2008

So sorry its been so long! It has been a pretty busy lately. My mom and grandparents came into town over the weekend and my mom was able to hold little Zachary for the first time!! As you know she just melted! He is doing well. They have cleared the bacteria from his blood but he is still carrying the bug in his spinal fluid but it is starting to be killed by the anti-biotics so we will just continue to pray for that to be taken care of. I'll try to be better at updating you all! :)

April 15, 2008

Today has been a rough day. Last thursday Zachary had a reservoir placed to drain the spinal fluid from the hydrocephalus that was building up. On Friday he was doing wonderful and they extubated him and placed him strait on nasal cannula and he was on room air! On Saturday night he became lethargic and started having bradi's every minute to two minutes. they then placed him back on the ventilator and ran some tests. Turned out that he now has bacterial meningitis. The bacteria is a gram negative bacteria called serratia marcescens. According to Infectious Disease team this is a pretty serious bug. Because it is so hard to kill, they immediately took him into the OR and removed the reservoir and gave him a dose of gentimycin to go ahead and start attacking the bacteria in the spinal fluid. He is now stable and we are just waiting until this is cleared out of his body. That is the update for now. I will try and remember to keep you all posted! Thanks for all the prayers!! We love you all!

April 12, 2008

Today has been a pretty good day. They have cleared Zachary to return back to our home hospital from UNC today. However, it was a stormy day so I asked that they keep him here until the storms are completely gone and they agreed. He had a pretty rough afternoon. He had a few episodes (drop in heart rate) while we were visiting and we were having to shake him every few seconds to get him to start breathing again. The doctors said that he needed a blood transfusion to get his blood count back up. They went ahead and put him back on the ventalator so that he can get some rest tonight but said that he won't be back on the vent for long. We should be going back to Fayetteville monday or tuesday so please pray for a pleasant ride back to Cape Fear Valley Hospital!

10 April 2008

Zachary had a very big day. This morning at 7:30 the doctors came and wheeled him to the operating room to place his reservoir. The surgery went wonderful with no complications. It was very difficult for the both of us to see him after the procedure because he just looks so much different then before but we know it is for the best. On top of all the good news from today they informed us that because he is breathing so well with the ventilator he will be taken off some time tomorrow and put on a nasal cannula which will provide no ventilatory support, just supplemental oxygen. This is another huge milestone for Zachary and for us. Also... Zachary now weighs 1 Lb 14.4 oz!!!! Our little baby is growing so fast!

April 9, 2008

Hey Everyone! They transferred Zachary up here to UNC Chapel Hill to have a reservoir put in his head to relieve the swelling in his brain. Jenna got to kangaroo him for the first time today for about an hour and that was so incredible! It is definitely what the both of them needed! We got some great pictures too!! His surgery will take place tomorrow, Thursday morning, at 07:30 eastern time. Please feel free to send a prayer his way either tonight or tomorrow morning. He is in the hands of some great surgeons up here and we know he will have a speedy recovery. We are staying at the Chapel Hill Ronald McDonald house and that is a God send. who knows how long we will be up here and a hotel would just kill us over time. But Everything is good, Zachary is Healthy, Jenna got a nice long massage today, and well I am just being me. Life is good. We want to thank everyone for your continued love and encouragement.

April 7, 2008

The past couple of days have been pretty good. Zachary is still showing signs of how tired he is from doing all of that breathing with the cpap. Today he weighs 798 grams. The doctors have been waiting for him to be 800 grams so that they can transfer him to Chapel Hill to get the reservoir placed. He will be moved either today or tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers as they get ready to transfer him. Pray that God places his hands in the gloves with the doctors who will be working on his little body. Thanks for all of your loyalty and prayers! We will keep you updated!

April 5, 2008

Well these past few days have been exciting ones! Yesterday afternoon they took Zachary off the ventilator again to try him on Cpap (tubes down his nose to help him breathe). This is the second time that they have tried him on this and the first time he lasted about 3 hours. Yesterday he was off the vent for 14 hours!! Breathing with the cpap is really tough on his little body because he has to do all the work. We are so proud of him for making it that long! When we went up there during the night shift, the RT was cleaning the equiptment and Zachary had nothing to help him breathe... he was breathing competely on his own for about 5 minutes!!! PRAISE GOD! He also weighed 724 grams last night (1 pound 10.5 ounces) and once he gets to 800 grams he is going to be sent to UNC to get his reservoir put in his head to help with the draining of the fluid. We appreciate each and every one of you who take your time to check on him and pray for him daily. God is still working his hands on our miracle and we are so thankful!

March 30, 2008

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update you on the spinal tap that Zachary had today. They started this procedure to try and relieve some of the pressure in his brain caused by the spinal fluid. They were able to draw 6cc's of fluid which is great. However, we won't know if it was from that region of his body until they do another head scan. They are going to do two more spinal taps before wednesday and then a head ultrasound on wednesday to see if that helped. If this doesn't work then he will be transferred to another hospital and have a reservoir inserted in his skull. We are so thankful for our prayer warriers and we ask that you really kick it into high gear these next few days that he won't have to undergo anything like that. We know how powerful God is and when people team up together and pray, miracles happen!! We will keep you updated on that. On a much more exciting note, I GOT TO HOLD ZACHARY IN MY ARMS TONIGHT!! PRAISE GOD! He weighs 1 lb 7.6 oz and I'm not usually allowed to hold him at this weight. The nurse was changing out his bed and allowed me to hold him while she made the switch. I tell you, God new I needed that! There is nothing like looking at your child through glass for a month and finally getting to hold him! We love you all and will keep you all posted!

March 29, 2008

It's been a while since we've posted something so sorry to keep you all waiting! Ken and I just moved out of our house into an apartment that is closer to the hospital. Zachary is doing well today. He weighs 1lb 7.7 ounces so he's lost a very little bit of weight. The doctors have also upped his feedings to 5cc's an hour so they have taken him off of the TPN (nutrients) so now its up to me to give him what he needs! Everything is going well. We just need to be praying for the swelling that is still in his brain. The doctors are doing a spinal tap procedure today to try and relieve some of this pressure. The doctors keep telling us that he will most likely have to be transferred to Duke University Medical Center to undergo a brain surgery that will put a reservoir directly into his ventricles. WE KNOW THAT THE DOCTORS CAN TELL US WHAT THEY BELIEVE WILL HAPPEN, BUT WE ALSO KNOW AND TRUST THAT GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL SAY WHAT WILL HAPPEN!! Zachary is strong and has proven to us time and time again that he can defeat the odds with the help of the Lord. Thanks for all of your prayers and warm thoughts!

March 27, 2008

Today is a great day. We just went to see Zachary and he gained 30 grams yesterday! :) He now weighs 1lb. 6.2 oz! Once he weighs 1000 grams we get to hold him!!!! What a glorious day that will be!!! Here are the pics of that sweet boy sucking on his tiny passy that barely fits in his mouth!

March 25, 2008

Zachary had a wonderful day today. Only one problem... He would not hold our hands at all today where as most days he wont let go. I dont think he slept but a few hours because whenever we saw him he would not stop wiggling in his little bed. He will not have another head ultrasound until next wednesday and we all already know what that is going to say, "the swelling has slowed greatly and everything looks PREFECT!" Thats what we are saying in our prayers and everything will work out! Oh and Zachary was wondering where all the wonderful people are that he keeps hearing about and he cant wait to see each and every one of you!

Check out my Slide Show!

March 24, 2008

Zachary is doing well today. We went up there this morning and he has an IV in each arm and one in his head. Poor guy can't move anything! They did a head ultrasound on him this morning and said that the swelling in his brain is a tiny bit more than it was last time. The good news is that the bleeding has stopped and is going away. Our prayer focus this week is for the spinal fluid in his ventricles to start to drain. We are confident in the Lord and know that everything will work itself out!

March 23, 2008

Today is easter! PRAISE GOD! Thank you Lord for your resurection and the ability to HEAL! Without the Lord we would not be as fortunate as we are today! Zachary is doing just great today! He weighs 597 grams and is being fed 2 cc's of my milk an hour! He is going to just get bigger and bigger! Thank you all for thinking of little Zachary each day! We are looking forward to everyone getting to meet him in person in the future! PRAISE GOD for his continued healing!!

March 20, 2008

Today was a very big day! When Ken and I went up to see Zachary this morning they had just taken him off the ventilator and put him on C-pap! (O2 in his nose) and we were sooo very excited! He lasted 3 1/2 hours off of the vent and we couldn't be happier! The nurses said that babies his size don't usually last long, if at all, off of the vent that long. We know that Zachary if a fighter and he is definitely working hiself to get better!

March 18, 2008

Today Zachary is 16 days old!! We have been counting our blessings this past couple of weeks!! As many of you know, I use to work at Centennial Medical Center in the High Risk OB department. I have seen my share of 23 weekers and earlier and some of them didn't make it. I feel that I was blessed with my knowelege because I had an idea about how Zachary was going to be. Or at least I thought I did!! I have never seen a baby his size look so good. A few days after he was born, the doctor was talking to us and I asked him if I was being partial to thinking that Zachary looked so good for his gestation. He looked at me, choked up, and said, "no, you're not... Zachary is doing so wonderful and looks great!" As you can imagine, Kenneth and I were so over joyed! This experience has really strengthened our relationship with the Lord and each other. We are so thankful for everyone who has added our family to their prayer list and who continually keep Zachary in their prayers! As of today he is doing well. He is finally gaining some weight after a week of weight loss. He now weighs about 560 grams which equals 1lb, 4oz. So he's already an ounce over his birth weight!!! God is so good and continues to bless our family! Thank you so much to everyone!!! We love you!

March 2, 2008

Hello Everyone. On March 2, 2008 Zachary David Stafford was born at 7:35 p.m. He weighed 1lb 3oz. When he was born, I was only 23 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Which as you know, is not long enough for a baby! We are so truly blessed to have Zachary in our lives and we needed a miracle this day.