"It's All Up to Oliver"

Thanks to everyone for their congratulations and support.  Oliver remains in the hospital tonight and his condition is stable.

As you can see from the picture, he still has a tube in his nose through which he is fed mommy's breast milk.  He is taking a little by bottle with each feeding, but is still learning the coordination and he tires easily.  We're starting to get the sense that this may be a longer process than initially anticipated.

Oliver has had several tests that have come back normal and he seems to be more cute and cuddly by the day.  Unfortunately, he hasn't passed his hearing screen yet.  This is reason for concern for us because he doesn't seem to startle to loud noises like most newborns do.  More testing will come in the future for this issue.

Since Oliver has more than one issue going on (trouble feeding, laryngomalacia, possible hearing problems), he's going to have some further evaluations to make sure there isn't a "unifying theory."  Occam's Razor is important in the art of diagnosis, and right now, we're waiting to see how sharply the razor will cut. 

Many of you know that our almost 4 year old son, Ezra, has mild autism.  When Grandma brought him to the hospital yesterday, he asked to "go to floor 3" which is where the NICU is located.  He hadn't met Oliver yet and we knew that he couldn't come back to the NICU room because it's RSV/flu season.  Ezra has mentioned Oliver frequently in recent weeks, and Rachel has taught him to answer the question "when will Oliver be here?" by saying "it's all up to Oliver." When I showed Ezra a picture of Oliver the other day and asked who it was, Ezra said, "Ezra when he was a baby!"

Fortunately, with the help of Oliver's nurse, we were able to bring Oliver out to the waiting area in a crib so that he could meet big brother and prove his existence.

In typical Ezra fashion, he looked over his brother and decided that the pulse oximeter (measuring Oliver's oxygen level and pulse) was more intriguing.  That's what is he looking at in the picture.

When Ezra was diagnosed with autism, there was definitely an adjustment period for Rachel and I .  Here's a passage that has been comforting:

Welcome to Holland


By Emily Pearl Kingsley

When you are going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous
vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your
wonderful plans...the Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the Gondolas in
Venice. You may even learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all
very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack
your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The
stewardess comes in and says "Welcome to Holland".

Holland???”, you say. What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy!
I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to
Italy.

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in
Holland and there you must stay, the important thing is that they
haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of
pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole
new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would
have never met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy
than Italy. But after you've been there for a while you catch your
breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has
windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland has Rembrandt's.

It's not clear where Oliver's plane will land and we're anxious to find out.  It's all up to Oliver, and we'll follow his lead.