They are kicking us out of here!

Erik Indy Ratzlaff gets to go home.  Well, it looks we've overstayed our welcome as they are kicking us out tomorrow on Thursday.  We hope to be back in Vail/Minturn late on Thursday.  Excellent news.  Picture below, very embarassing for the little man to be put into a girly / pink swing for a few minutes.

 

Indy has been upgraded!!! :)

Latest news from this evening: Our Little Warrior has been upgraded to the Level II NICU!!!

We can't be happier!!!

Chris went to feed him tonight. I stayed home to rest, since we've spent most of today's day with him. He didn't take new pictures, but we will do so tomorrow, when we'll get there to breast feed him again.

Oh, yes! The other two news are that they pulled away his last catheter (the one from his belly button) and put a "lock/I.V." on his right arm, just in case they'd need it. But they've already lowered the amount of vitamins, lipids and minerals they've been giving him, since he's doing so good on feeding from the bottle. AND, now he's starting doing better and better each day also with breast feeding!!! We ARE sooo freaking excited!!!

He's still receiving a little whiff of oxygen, but with that one he'll be also coming home, since we live up in higher altitude. They said that he'll most likely need it for the first week or maybe a month. Our pediatrician up there will decide how long will he need it for.

Big hug to everybody,

Sarah & My 2 Boys :o>

Our Little Buddy keeps doing great! :)

Our son keeps doing better and better each day.

Yesterday, 5/26th, he started feeding both by the bottle and we also tried a little on the breast. He did very good on the bottle and he definitely knew what to do also on the breast. We just can't know how much actual milk he was able to drink, therefore we're mostly feeding him with the bottle.

Today he has already drank twice at least 30 ml with the nurses this morning and then 40 ml with his dad around lunch time. Btw: I took the above picture just after the feeding. He looks happy like a Little Clam! :)

Should I start being jealous of his relationship with his dad??? Hmmmm.... ;o)

Now we're still at the hospital, waiting for the next feeding session, while he's happily sleeping. A lactation consultant will be helping us with more breast feeding tricks, which will hopefully help to get him more and more onto the breast. :)

Big hug and lots of love to everybody!

And thanXXX again for all the great support and best wishes, prayers & positive thoughts we're receiving every day. We'd like to answer to all of your e-mails, text messages and calls, but still don't have much time to do so. But we do appreciate each and every one!!!

Sarah & Chris & our Little Sledneck Boy :>

Erik Indy Ratzlaff - 5/26th update

This morning we got another great surprise: he not only had another good diaper change, but he also drank his 1st bottle of the colostrum/milk I've been pumping for him these days. And he did this all on his own, without the aid of any tubes!!! Yesss!!!  :)

The nurse Jody told us that they didn't know, if he would have been able to do that or not. These last days he showed he did learn to suck and had a good gag reflex, therefore they decided to give it a try.
At first it looked like he was wondering what the heck was happening, but then he figured it out and started swallowing. He drank the whole bottle!!! We cannot be happier!!!

The only "down" part of all of this was that it was happening while the NICU was closed this morning for a surgery on another baby patient. This way Chris and I couldn't see it and besides that, he was happily sleeping when they finally opened it. So we didn't get the chance to hold him.

Yep! Now that the medical staff gave us the ok to come over at any time we want to hold & squeeze him, HE is putting down his little feet to tell us already who's the boss and make US wait. Ha-ha-ha!!!

But we're happy to do so and let him sleep to gain more and more strength, so that we'll get back up to Vail as soon as possible. I've been looking at the sun setting on the mountains these last two days and, I can't wait to be up there, back home, and with all of you family/friends around us. Love you and miss you all!

Oh! One more news: he might be transferring from the 3rd level NICU (highest risk) to the 2nd level, maybe even today. We'll see. The 3rd level NICU's Staff wouldn't like to let him go, because they enjoy so much stopping by his side to interact with him. They're all in love with him and keep telling us they'll make sure to stop upstairs to see him again, because they'll all miss him.
I joked about it: I asked them how is he going to do, leaving behind so many cute little girls, nurses and doctors. But they assured me he'll find new girlfriends upstairs for sure. And they were NOT joking!
Gosh!!!
He's 5 days old and already breaking women's hearts!!!???!!!

But I guess Chris was correct.
Throughout my pregnancy, I kept saying that Indy (that was his name since we didn't know his sex) WAS a boy. Everybody kept telling me they'll for sure get a big old fat laugh if Indy is going to be a girl. They didn't believe me!

And Chris was one of them. But besides that, he kept saying that... he'll be happy and grateful to have a baby boy, because this way he'll worry only for 1 "bird". While having a baby girl (ehm) that would have mean to worry for all the million "birds" flying around her. He-he!

I mentioned this to our friend Elisa and she, with her usual good humor told me... that there are already many good female birds waiting for him up in Vail - auch!   ;o)  Ha-ha-ha!!!
But she's correct. Lately there have been many more baby girls births than boys. I guess he's gonna have few more choices than the usual "1 woman : 30 men" ratio that Vail has been known for.    ;o)

The other reason Chris was hoping in a baby boy was... he's going to have young strong hands to pull his sled out once he's going to be old. With the 3 Moyers' boys and ours, I guess that the two sets of parents won't need to worry getting their sleds stuck once they'll get old.   ;o)

Erik Indy Ratzlaff

Welcome Erik Indy Ratzlaff.
Upon arrival he had some difficulty breathing and just getting "started".  His heart beat never slowed down but he just wasn't getting a lung full of air.  Off we went to the hospital and eventually to Denver.  As of May 25th Friday, he is essentially off any type of life support except for a tiny bit of oxygen.  He'll be continued to be hooked up to monitoring just so we can keep an eye on him for a bit longer.  Not sure how long they plan on keeping us in Denver, but it could be another week.  (bummer)

1st Ratzlaff's Family picture

The two boys are already getting along very well!

Holding onto his mama

1st time in his mama's arms (5/25th!):

he soon fell asleep and almost put me to sleep too. I could hardly keep my eyes open!

 At Vail hospital he measured in at 7lbs, but we were all a bit busy. 
Actual weight was probably 7lbs 11 oz or even 7lbs 14 oz.  No one really knows.

1st time in his daddy's arms:

also Chris was falling asleep... it's contagious!!!

Erik Indy in his bassinet with his cousin Wag's picture in the background.

Our nurse Jessica not only hang the picture, but also laminated it to make sure it won't get wet.

Thank you Wagner!!!  :)

Our Little Bug looking at his new buddy Teddy Bear