Day 3 down…here we come day 4…

Praise God that even though Jack is a bit jaundice and slow in his eating, he was moved to the level II NICU! Please pray for a better appetite and a better tan so that we can take him home! Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement! We love you all! – The Cassels -

Baby Jack's 1st Baby Sitters

Don't worry Grandma Louise... we have baby Jack taken care of for you! Thank you for sending us!

He's Here!

Our baby boy is here! Jackson Robert Cassels was born Monday, August 24, 2009 at 5:56 pm. Weighing at 5 lb. 5 oz. and measured at 16.5 inches he is a great size for a 35 weeker. Every moment baby Jack is improving and has already been taken off of oxegyn help, had his food increased and though he is a little jaundice if he keeps poop'en the way he is, will be out of the NICU in no time at all. Please keep praying for his continued improvement and we are hoping to bring home the whole family this Friday!

~ The Cassels Family ~

The Big Day is Here!

The big day is finally here. The test for lung maturity came back positive so they will deliver Jackson tonight at 5:30 pm. Please keep praying for Hannah & Jackson through out this process. I will be posting pictures as soon as I can. Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers!

~ The Cassels Family ~

Thanks and Keep Pray'en!

We are doing great! Thank you everyone for the encouragement and thank you Grandma Louise for the awesome gift (pictured above!). We found out that the fluid went up a little but not enough to send Hannah home. Unless there is a major change on Friday or Monday they will do a test on Monday to find out if Jackson's lungs are mature. If they are mature then they will look at scheduling a C-section and if not they may just send Hannah home because she has been so stable. So for now it is a waiting game. Please pray that God will give us as well as the doctor’s wisdom in what action to take and that when Jackson does come that he will be physically ready.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for everyone’s prayers and encouragement. There is no doubt that God has been answering prayers. Even though we were told again today that we are not leaving anytime soon, we are feeling great, Jackson is in great health and growing. In addition, God is giving us opportunities to share with the nurses and build some wonderful relationships. Praise God!

We're Still Here!

We made it another day. Not much to update on but we want to let everyone know that momma and baby are still doing good. As of yesterday the doctors have moved us from 24 hour monitoring to 1 hour and half monitoring every six hours. Yeah… that means more freedom and that the baby is safer. Please keep pray’en and we will keep hang’en.

Good News!

For those of you that have been watching... we have gone from a 4 to a 6 in the ambionic fluid! That is good news! Thanks for the prayers!

Update on Jackson

One week down and ????? to go! For those of you that are wondering, no I did not run Hannah into anything during the wheel chair ride. We did get in trouble for being gone to long but it was a needed escape. Jackson and mom are doing great! As of right now the major concern is the possible problems from having the low ambionic fluid. There just isn’t enough room for Jackson to move all that much so they are still worried about him rolling over on his umbilical cord. We did have a sonogram on Wednesday and they said that the fluid is stable so there is no need for any action right now. There is another request. Apparently Hannah’s blood pressure is to low (which is weird with me there all the time:-) for her to take the medicine to keep her from having contractions so that needs to go up. Other than that we have set up camp and will be here as long as needed. We have our sonogram today and we will update with the results. Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement.
~ The Cassels Family ~

Update on Jackson Cassels

Today we found out that Hannah can leave the room! She has been approved for 30 min. wheel chair rides one time a day. Since we also found out that we are here for a while that was encouraging. We also will get to tour the NICU tomorrow to have a better idea of where Jackson will be taken care of IF he is born early. If the ambionic fluid gets lower than the 4 that it is at or the baby has more decelerated heart rate incidents, then they will take him through a C-section. If the fluid stays the same they will try to get through the 36th or 37th week. The longer the better! Despite these possibilities, all the people here are encouraged by the great reports and monitoring of the baby. Thanks for the continued prayer and encouragement!

Update on Jackson

Thank to everyone for your encouragement and prayers. We know that God is faithful and wants only the best for our family. The day was uneventful and the doctor is hoping for another week. Next Monday will be 34 weeks and they will be more comfortable with that time on taking the baby than now. Jackson has had some problems of deceleration of his heart rate during the night but is the perfect example of what a baby’s heart rate should look like during the day. If this continues they could end up doing a C-Section earlier but right now we are hopeful as the nights keep getting better. The plan is to do what ever is best for Jackson and every day in Hannah is 3 less days in the NICU. As for those of you that are sending us encouraging messages and asking questions via what ever means, please forgive me for using the mass communication it all has been a bit overwhelming. Keep praying and God Bless. ~ The Cassels Family ~

Hang'en in the Hospital

Hang'en in the hospital for Jackson

Hey everyone! We are already up to 32 weeks. For those of you that have been watching our ticker the due date was wrong... we are a week farther along! That was just the first part of our excitement in this first couple of weeks in Vegas. As of Friday August 7th we are getting to hang in the Summerlin hospital for observation and fluids. Our doctor found that the ambionic fluid was at a 4 and that was too low! Jackson seems to be doing fine but they need to get the fluid up to 7 or 8 before Hannah can leave the hospital. There seems to be a concern about him leaning on the ambilical cord with the fluid being so low and cutting down the amount of blood that is sent to him. That was the issue last night serveral times and the Perinatologist is coming in to check Hannah and Jackson out, just in case. Right now they say that Jackson is looking great with his heart beat and movement, they just want to be safe. They have also given Hannah 2 steriod shots to help with the development of Jackson's lungs. The plan is that they will re-check the fluid level on Sunday or Monday to see if it has gotten back to a good level. Please keep praying for us as we go through the adventure of bringing a new member into our family.

Thank you ~ The Cassels Family