Saying Goodbye to our Precious Jr.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

We had to say goodbye to our precious little Junior on Sunday night. We know that this is Heavenly Father's will, and we are at peace that Jake Junior was needed back home.

Spencer W. Kimball wrote "I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. We can shorten our lives but I think we cannot lengthen them very much. Sometime we'll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life which seemed so difficult for us to comprehend."

We do not know why we were chosen to have this special experience just 7 months after losing our precious Elise, but we have faith that we will understand our Father's will more completely at some future time. From so many of the wonderful experiences that you, our dear friends, have had and shared with us, we believe that Jake's little mission on this earth was to help build faith and testimony in his parents, sisters, and all of our friends. He was successful.

Thank you so much for your faith and prayers. We believe they were able to carry little Jacob through long enough to spend these two precious weeks with him.

Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers,
Jeanne, Jake, Madi, and Kate

Memorial Service for Baby Jacob

We will be having a memorial service for Baby Jacob this Saturday, May 9. There will be a viewing from 10-11 and a short service at 11:30. All are welcome, but there is certainly no pressure for any of you to attend. The address is: 10312 S. Ashley Park Drive Sandy, Utah 84092

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the University of Utah NICU. Contact Suzy Ricker at 801-581-2121. She has a number of different things people can donate besides money.

Calling all prayers!

 Saturday, May 2, 2015

Today has been a pretty hard day. We are posting earlier than usual to request some specific prayers on Juniors behalf.

This morning Junior started struggling to keep enough oxygen in his lungs.  The x-ray showed that his lungs were actually hyperventilated, so they couldn't increase the amount of ventilator support other than giving him 100% oxygen.  Then, they switched ventilators back to his original ventilator that doesn't keep a residual pressure.  This didn't help too much and his oxygen was still way down.

They tested the blood oxygen level between his wrist and leg, and it was different by about 10-15%, showing that his oxygenated blood wasn't circulating.  They were able to give him some nitric oxide which helped increase the blood oxygen level overall and increase the amount of oxygenated blood circulated throughout the body.  Even with this extra support, they have had to keep him on 100% oxygen.  Our doctor told us they are running out of options to treat him if this doesn't work.  That was very hard to hear and we have been teary today. They think that the PDA (hole in his heart) is shunting blood without properly oxygenating it.  The faster the PDA can close, the better it will be for Junior.  Right now it doesn't look like the Tylenol is being very effective.  They also gave him an extra steroid, hoping it will help his lungs.  There is a small chance it could result in brain damage, but low oxygen could also do that.

The bright spot of the day was that he opened both of his eyes and was looking around a little today. It was so cute and was just what we needed to lift our spirits a little.  We have felt very blessed to have so many good days with Baby Jacob the past two weeks.  We trust in the Lord and have felt his comfort and love throughout this tough day.

We would love your prayers
Here are the things we are praying for specifically:
1. Tylenol will be effective in closing his PDA.
2. He will be able to have enough oxygen in his blood and that his body will circulate it properly.
3. His bleeding in his brain will decrease.
4. That he will be able to be stable enough that he can tolerate feeds and his intestines will work properly.

Thank you so much for your faith and prayers.  We are hoping that as we unite in specific prayers, he will be able to receive these specific blessings.

Both eyes open!

Three Generations

Wink!

Friday, May 1, 2015

It was a better day than yesterday.  When we got to the hospital this morning Baby Jacob opened his left eye.  Our hearts melted!  He kept it open for a couple of seconds and then had to rest with it closed the remainder of the day.  He also got to rest on his tummy for few hours, which he seemed to like okay.

They are upping the dose of Tylenol to help close the hole in his heart.  It will take several days before they will do another echo-cardio gram to see if the hole has shut completely.

The blood cultures still have not grown any infection so our fingers are crossed that the possibility of menigitis is going down, but we still won't know for certain for awhile.  He was given his first dose of antibiotics before the first blood cultures were taken, so the lack of culture growth doesn't necessarily mean no infection.  They will do another draw tomorrow and see how his white blood cells are doing and then may stop the antibiotics since he has had a seven-day course.  We remain very hopeful.

Jr. opening his eye for the very first time.  Such a cute wink!