#StrongLikeStetson

"For I know the plans I have for you," Declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Stetson Rhett Martinez made his way into this world on the 13th of August at 23 weeks 4 days. Our little guy was born weighing 1lb 4.9oz in an emergency csection. Stetson was promptly taken back by doctors and nurses to the NICU where he has been since and will stay for some time.

Our second born, Greyson was also a NICU baby, born at 34 weeks and weighing 3lbs 12oz- so initially I thought I knew what to expect; however, these two stays have been completely different. Since Stetson is so tiny, we had a lot of difficult conversations in his first couple days of life and he has had many ups and downs as you can imagine.

The first week of life, Stetson was immediately placed on a conventional ventilator with a breathing tube, chest tubes for both lungs, IVs, having daily blood draws, daily xrays, given blood transfusions, phototherapy and more. Within the weeks, Stetson has bounced back and forth from different machines to assist him with his breathing and lung function as his lungs are still not fully developed being born so early. Surprisingly, little guy was transferred over to the CPAP machine as he was showing significant improvement during the beginning of his 2nd week but quickly he was switched to the BIPAP machine as it was not working out too well for him. Unfortunately, his desats were getting very frequent and he was not able to bounce back quickly that resulted in nurses having to give him direct pumps from a bag. With these harsh desats, his care team decided to reinsert the breathing tube back in to his little body. During that time, he accumulated an air pocket hole in his left lung (pneumothorax) that resulted in him needing to reinsert the chest tube in that left side. Thankfully his right lung was good to remove the chest tube during the 2nd week but his left lung kept becoming an issue for him. Fast forward to last week, week 3, Stetson unfortunately was not doing so well with his breathing and desats were getting a bit harsher than before. Soon after doctors discovered some discharge accumulating where the insertion of the left chest tube was. After some testing, they found he had a couple infections, near the left chest tube insertion and in his blood stream) which they started treating right away with the help of the infectious disease team. They performed a head ultrasound in order to look more into the brain for infections since he wouldn't be stable enough for an MRI and also had to perform a spinal fluid poke for any additional possible infections in other areas of his blood stream. They were not certain of any additional infections so he is currently on strong antibiotics for another 14 days that cover majority of the body as a precaution. Directly after, his CO2 levels were not at all close to what they should be and his chest xray showed haziness with fluid surrounding all parts which was becoming a huge issue with his desats and levels. His team made the decision to place Stetson on the oscillator machine last week due to his struggles. Thankfully doctors were able to catch his infection pretty early to where they weren't so worried they couldn't treat it successfully.

He seemed stable this past weekend, so he was taken off the oscillator and placed back on the conventional ventilator; however, his struggles continued and within hours he was placed back on the oscillator. Given that he had just started the antibiotics not even a full week and being on medication for sedation and pain, doctors thought they needed to wait another day or so to watch his CO2 levels and ween him off the pain medication. Things started looking good Sunday evening into the night and Monday morning. So Sunday night and Monday morning, Stetson was slowly weened off of his sedation medication and fentanyl then placed back on the conventional ventilator since his CO2 levels were really great. After a whole week, I was finally able to hold my sweet boy! I was finally able to see him so relaxed and doing pretty well again. He is currently still on the conventional ventilator with the breathing tube but his tests and blood draws have been coming back looking better. Stetson has shown so much strength and growth. He is gaining so much weight and as of today weighing 810 grams. He has fully opened both eyes and has continued to be the talk of the NICU.

Although his care team currently has him on chronic machine settings and has categorized his diagnosis as chronic lung disease- he is showing so much resilience to all things they are having to do to his little body. This week, he is finally in a good stable place with his levels and results. Stetson still has such a long long way to go and we are aware things can take a turn again at any given time but he has such a loving team behind him in all of you interested in his story and his fight. We find peace and faith in knowing he is so loved by so many and that God is in this story.

Today, Stetson Rhett is 1 month old! A whole month! After the very traumatic birth of our boy, we didn't know what the outcome would be for him, we didn't know how much he would fight. We have our faith and have prayed for his strength but we knew there was nothing we could do during that time; it was all up to God and Stetson to make the decision on the outcome and he is showing that daily regardless of his daily battles. Now, as mentioned, Stetson has a long long way to go with no home date in sight, but we are certain he is being well taken care of by his team at Children's Hospital and I'm looking forward to continuously sharing Stetson's story with all of you.

Going forward, my hope is to share the fun stuff with you all- our adventures, my favorite book reads, mom life; but also sharing Stetson's birth story that led up to his arrival and his progress in the NICU. I hope to educate you on all things level 3/4 NICU and connect with other parents that may be struggling with the emotional and mental effects this situation takes on a family or individual.

I hope you stay and follow along. I would love if you share these blog posts and I ask that you continue to pray for our sweet family and most importantly Stetson and his amazing care team. I thank you all for staying and reading and I pray you find hope in any struggle you may be going through.

*September is NICU awareness month- to learn more about the NICU please visit-

www.nicuawareness.org and www.marchofdimes.org/nicuawareness

-- The HotMessBrunette