An MRI, a fight and our beautiful baby...

First Tennyson has an MRI scheduled for this morning in which he will have to be sedated, so the rest of today he will be rather lathargic, at least we got in one good feeding at 8am. The MRI is to look for clusters in his brain that are indicators of developmental abnormalities. Doesn't mean he won't have any developmental disturbances but if there aren't any its a good indicator. I will post results from that when I have them. They have to sedate the babies for two reasons, one because they need them to lay still and second because it's very noisy in there. Once Tennyson is sedated, they will put ear plugs into his ear canals and wrap his head with ear muff looking things to be sure and not damage his hearing during this procedure.

I bet you're wondering about the fight...have you ever been manipulated and not realized it. I sure have and I hate that. Needless to say I received a call yesterday from Tennyson's case worker (just so you all know if you are ever contacted by a case worker who is contracted by the insurance company to be your babies advocate during their stay and assure you they're receiving the best and proper treatments, beware). She was so nice and wonderful at first calling once or twice a week to see how things are going, yesterday however I felt she was being rather pushy, pumping me for information on Tennyson like she hasn't before though his medical files are right in front of her. I mentioned that to Travis while we were on our way to the hospital as she encouraged me to ask the nurse practitioner if we could room in last night. For those of you who don't know (you're blessed) what rooming in is, it means we stay overnight in a postpartum room with Tennyson, just as we would have had he been full term and take him home the following day. Needless to say, we all know he's not quite ready for that yet.

I was outraged by this and of course it's another thing to worry about, but we discussed it and decided to let it go, she must have been having some mental lapse and confusing us with another patient. Little did we know...when we arrived at the NICU and were scrubbing in Dr. Porte stopped us and mentioned she had contacted him questioning why Tennyson was still here, he felt he needed to defend the reasoning to Travis and I. We were completely aware of why he was still here and knew he wasn't ready to go home, we assured Dr. Porte that we were very pleased with the care Tennyson was receiving and didn't want to be discharged early, which causes readmittance on pediatrics many times.

So by that time I was a bit angrier, then Jeanne, the nurse practitioner came into our room and reviewed with us the same information Dr. Porte just had as the case worker had contacted her as well, wanting her reasoning and rationale. We discussed with Jeanne what I was told by the case worker and all the pieces were falling into place.

They are trying to push our precious baby out of the NICU, sending him home on oxygen (which isn't a problem) but he has so many desat issues still that they don't at this time trust him on portable monitors which is what we would be taking home. We discussed the plan of care with both Dr. Porte and Jeanne and with the MRI today that will at least buy us a few more days however both they and Mara (the speech therapist who I found out today was also contacted) are going to be fighting those battles for us. When the insurance company begins denying our stay which will be soon (possibly today or tomorrow) they will be appealing it as he's not stable enough at this time.

Anyways all that to say, please be praying for us. It's just one more thing to have to deal with and somedays it's hard enough just to get through.

Okay enough about me...Tennyson gained again last night and broke the 5lb. 12 ounce barrier. In the middle of the night feedings he ate 70MLs and 90MLs (OINK, OINK)respectively so I would wager to say there will probably be another gain tonight.

He's looking wonderful and so grown up now, I can't believe he was seven weeks old yesterday and we're 36 weeks gestationally today. Amazing!!

Specific prayer needs for him right now are the MRI and his response to the sedation following the MRI, his circumcision which is scheduled for tomorrow morning, his respiratory systems continued development, allowing him to keep his breathing up while being sedated especially (when he gets really comfortable or into a deep sleep many times we forget to keep breathing), and that infection will stay away.

Sorry this was a tyrade and a tangent I just have to vent about what's happening before I allow it to consume me. Needless to say I won't be so naive the next time.

Love you all and thank you so much for your prayers, we're only making it because the Lord hears our (yours and mine) cries and is lifting us up.

Loved by the Lord-
Travis, Lindsay & Tennyson Myers

Okay so the beautiful baby part was to be more photos but blogger is down...I will upload them as soon as I can.