29 February 2008

AAARGHH!! OUR LITTLE PIRATE IS HOME!

OUR RIDE HOME, RELAXATION, SLEPT THE WHOLE WAY AND DIDN'T WAKE UP UNTILL WE CAME INTO THE VIEW OF METEORA, I WOULD SAY HE KNEW HE WAS HOME OR HE WAS HUNGRY.AARGHH! Our little Pirate loves to sleep with one eye open, my hand is trying to gently coax his eye to close, but I have learned that it is just his way of keeping us in sight.


His favorite pasttime is sleeping, he loves to sleep with his pacifier. They taped his pacifier to his face in the hospital along with the stomach tube to feed him, so now when his pacifier falls out while sleeping it suprises him awake because he was so used to it just staying there even if he let it go. Luckily he does sleep without it at night, I don't know if the hospital taught him this or if we are creating a new habit but we have taught him to sleep 4 hours through, so I only have to get up at 2 am and again at 6 am, I hope we can keep this up.

24 February 2008

Yippee!! New Pictures

Arthur and I took the train up to see Nik on Saturday, we got to hold him and feed him a small bottle of milk.


He loves to communicate and will move his mouth in all sorts of ways and stick out his tongue.

I love kissing his little shaved head, he has that great baby smell.

22 February 2008

Doctors

Arthur and I wanted to share a fun story with you.
Last Monday Morning (before they moved Nik to ICU)
I had just finished nursing Nikolaos when the doctors came in for their rounds and guess how many doctors came in? Are you done guessing, guess again, we had fifteen doctors, two learning doctors and two nurses entered, a total of 20 people, I already had one nurse watching me feed the baby. I couldn't get out of there fast enough, the whole room was full. They don't let you stay when they are checking the kids, I guess this is so they can talk openly. Of course I should of told them I wouldn't understand anyways, although I am learning some new Greek words like the word for poop and green throw up and so on, all of the words that one really doesn't need to know, I guess it is better than Greek cus words though.
They are taking very good care of our little baby, in fact when we went to visit Nik on Thursday the two doctors at the front told us that we were to talk only to the Chief Head Doctor and that he was in charge of Niks condition. In fact now we only deal with him and when we call they all know that the Sakkas baby is being taken care of by the chief doctor, his name is Nikolaos also.

17 February 2008

On Standby

Nik developed a fever over the night so it looks like we won't be going home on Monday. Arthur and I have been staying in Thessaloniki since Thursday afternoon and we will stay until we can take him home. Arthur found a good parking spot next to our hotel and a very good restaurant (This is a different hotel and restaurant Rhonda) so we aren't moving the car until it is time to move Nik. The restaurant is very good traditional oven foods of Greece and our hotel room has a balcony that overlooks ancient Roman bath ruins. Further down the street is the Roman Agora and a McDonalds with 1euro Strawberry Milkshakes and 3.10euro Big Mac.
Arthur and I went to the Cosmos Mall yesterday and it was so 'busy', Arthur likes to use the word 'Panic' to describe the people, to me it was busier than the malls get in the States during Christmas time, a whole lot of people. The restaurants at the mall close at 2 am in the morning I don't think we see that in the States. Hopefully Nik will get better soon I feel so sorry for him because he was doing so well and was completely unplugged and now he has a new drip system to rehydrate him since he was also throwing up and had diarrhea.

08 February 2008

Operation Update

The operation went well today, the doctors were very happy about the outcome. They said that he has everything in the proper place, so that's a blessing, Thank you for the prayers. The next process is for him to be able to eat, he has been only on a drip and medicine regimen. They will see how he does with milk and then they will wait untill he passes some fecal matter into the colostomy bag. After that they will keep him for a few more days and then they will let him come home, we can't wait, maybe he will be our Valentine baby.
Arthur and I got to touch him last night, it was wonderful, he had his eyes wide open the whole time just staring at us. His hair has pretty much been all shaved off and he has very long feet. Rhonda snuck in for a brief moment before the nurse caught her and sent her back outside, but at least she was able to see him one last time before her big trip back home.

06 February 2008

Cuter Photo

This is a photo taken a few hours after his birth, we still haven't been able to take any current photos.

UPDATE

The doctors have confirmed that it is Hirschsprungs Disease. We are going to go see him on Thursday and then on Friday he is going in for the Colostomy Surgery. Rhonda will be in the air flying back home and Arthur and I will stay in Thessaloniki untill after the operation. We are still unsure of when he will be coming home but put in your prayers that it will be soon.
My dad found an easy to read website that talks about Hirschsprungs Disease .



Fashion Statement

I did the Greek Fashionable thing, I had a C-section. Anyone who knows me would know that I am not at all into being in fashion, but it was a quick minute decision. The doctors said I was in the stages of pre-eclampsia and it was getting very dangerous for me and the baby, although I wasn't in any labor pain I did have pain in my upper back and the baby was showing signs of being stressed. So the team was called in ( I had both maternity doctors with me) and a little after midnight in the early morning of January 29, 2008 Nik was delivered while I was out cold. The reason I said it was the fashionable thing to do was that everyone Arthur knows has done it. In fact in my room we had 6 women come through, 2 regular labors and 4 C-Sections, out of 6 women 2 of us had our babies taken to bigger hospitals. A C-Section in Greece is almost like fake boobs in California 2 out of every 3 women has it done.

03 February 2008

Greetings from Greece

Greetings,

Hello from Greece, this is Rhonda saying hello. I made it in yesterday and wanted to give everyone an update. Above is a picture of Nick with Mara right after he was born. Nick is now in the hospital in Thessalaniki. Arthur and I went right from the airport to see Nick in the hospital. He is in an incubator, but was kicking and moving. He even opened his eyes to look at us. He is absolutely beautiful. The doctors plan to do some tests tomorrow and we hope to get the results back in 2-3 days. Then they will have a diagnosis and put together a plan of treatment. We appreciate your prayers very much and know he will be well soon.

Mara is now home and is recuperating quickly. She has an appointment with the local hospital tomorrow to check her incision. Hopefully she will be able to travel up to see Nick later in the week. It is about 3 1/2 hours trip by car.

Will update you as soon as we know more.