Bounding Forward!

Michael was moved Friday night to the Graduate NICU, which is where the highly improved babies go. This is partly because several new babies (like 20 something weeks) came into the unit within a few hours of each other. The other reason is that he has improved even more.

He has been breathing so well that they've taken him off of the oxygen saturation monitor. His breath rates have been staying down at normal levels that are allowing him to get more rest. He has been constantly sleeping all day whenever he's not being fed. This is great because he was not able to sleep very much on Wednesday and Thursday with all of the poking, prodding and very labored breathing. He's doing so much better now. They even took him off of the antibiotics today.

The 2 issues that are keeping him in the hospital are jaundice and eating. His bilirubin count was above 16 this morning. A 13 would have been plenty to get him under the lights. Whenever he's not being changed or fed, he's under 2 very powerful lights to break down the junk in his blood.

As far as feeding is concerned, we're having mixed results. He ate some yesterday but ate almost nothing today at 9:00 and only 2cc at 2:15. They had to finish those feedings with a feeding tube. Tonight's feeding a 5:00 was better. Ne nursed extremely well for 5 minutes straight and then drank from a bottle another 15cc of Bobbi's milk. It's a giant step in the right direction!

Thanks for the prayers, and feel free to leave comments here on the blog. I'll keep adding pics here and start adding some videos here.

Another New Beginning...

On Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 4:45 AM, Michael Thomas Wolski was born at 6 pounds 5 ounces and 18.5 inches. He is doing fine right now.

He was born a few weeks early and, his lungs are not fully mature. After being born, he was flown to Presbyterian - St. Luke's in Denver where he is still in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He was taken off of the oxygen a few hours ago and seems to be breathing fine on his own. This is very exciting!

Michael also has a few holes in his heart. One is a VSD that is about 2mm and will probably close on its own. The ASD is 6mm. With his entire heart being the size of his fist and the hole being a bit bigger than his thumb, that's not a small hole. We don't know if it will close on its or if he'll need some sort of operation in the next month or two or maybe in the next year. He'll get another echo in the next few days, and then we'll know more.

Bobbi and her dad joind be in denver yesterday where we are staying the the Ronald McDonald house. It's only about a quarter mile away. Bobbi is recovering pretty well form the delivery and even walks with me back and forth between the house and the hospital. We're not sure how long the baby will be in the NICU, but I plan to return to work on Monday either way.

We should know more tonight. You can find more pics here.

New Beginnings...

This has been quite an eventful week: academically, vocationally and physically. I joined a doctoral program, got started rearranging my department's curriculum and began a regular workout regimen.

Last month, I applied and was accepted to Walden University’s Doctor of Education – Teacher Leadership program. The first 6 semester-hour class officially began 2 weeks ago, and our first paper was due yesterday. It was a mildly difficult process that involved a tremendous amount of reading and introspection. I’m glad to have it completed and turned in as it makes me feel like I’ve truly begun the journey. I plan to finish the program by August, 2010.

Not nearly as ambitious as my academic adventure but much more frustrating, I was recently tasked with rearranging the curriculum in my department to start accommodating part-time high school students who will attend our classes in the morning during their junior year and then in the afternoon during their senior year and then full time after they graduate high school to complete our 2-year AAS program within one year of finishing high school. This is difficult because our program must be learned in sequence by both our full-time and part-time students sitting in the same classes at the same time. What makes it so difficult is that the part-time students will only attend the morning instruction their first year and only the afternoon instruction their second year. Anyone who has ever taught a sequential subject can easily see the problem with this scenario. It will be well worth it once we get everything in place.

I've noticed that frustration can be partly alleviated with a good workout. Last week I started going to the gym by 5:00 every morning. So far, I’ve not missed a day. For the past 7 mornings, I’ve gone in and gotten on the elliptical/stair machine for between 15 and 30 minutes. The first day, my heart rate got into the 160s, which freaked me out a little. After the 3rd day, I started having trouble even getting up into the 130s. Yesterday, the fire alarm went off 15 minutes into my workout, so it was cut a bit short. This morning, I increased the angle of inclination, and 20 minutes into it my heart-rate got up to 141.

I feel great!