Long Time, No Post...

I know a week and a half has gone by since I last posted.  Here's a good rule of thumb, if I haven't posted recently, that means not much has happened and what has is what is expected.  As is the case since the last post.  Besides I am constantly busy doing things as well, which I will explain more in this post.

So he started nursing last week on Monday and he has taken in quite a number of full feedings since starting.  We have not been given the orders yet to do 2 attempts a shift, but he is started to do awesome at 1 attempt a shift.  They look for things like taking in a full feeding while nursing (not needing to supplement with a tube feeding), waking for all feedings and desiring to suck or nurse at all feedings.  Basically all the criteria they looked at to start him nursing, they look at all over again to add a feeding per shift.

That may seem silly at first that they use the same criteria, but it really makes a lot of sense.  Remember how the milk in the tub feeding is being fortified with extra calories?  Well, when we nurse, he isn't getting the extra calories, as there is really no way to fortify the milk as it is coming out.  Also, nursing takes a lot of energy.  What you end up with is a baby using a lot more of his energy in one shot instead of throughout the day AND he's getting less calories to draw from.  That makes for a very tired baby after nursing.  When we first started nursing it was very common for him to sleep through 2 or 3 feedings, whereas before nursing he was awake for pretty much all his feedings (sleeping through an occasional feeding very seldom).

After about a week and a half of nursing he is starting to be awake more again for his other feedings.  He is still not as awake as he was before, but he is making progress in that direction and is getting close.  As the staff here tells us, it is very common to be put in a holding pattern like this, as the baby develops, gets stronger and has more energy.

I would also like to add that he has been getting full feedings in when we try to nurse.  He knows exactly what to do and he wants it!  In fact, yesterday morning we weren't sure if we were going to nurse or not, and as we had to change out his clothes (he had peed out his diaper) I was holding him.  He was being somewhat fussy, so I was trying to hold him in different ways to find one he liked, and well, he liked being positioned to nurse.  I think he was very confused that he couldn't just nurse with my clothes in place like normal...  So we nursed and he did great!  Samuel sure knows what he wants!

The other "big" news is that he has now been back on a nasal canula since last Friday.  I don't remembered if I mentioned this or not (but guessing I did), but it is extremely common for this to happen, especially when the parameters change and they start nursing.  With all his energy being used on eating, he doesn't have as much energy to keep his oxygen up!

One of the doctor's was in looking at him 2 days ago and suggested giving Samuel some medicine that would help him get ready of the extra fluids in his body.  While it is normal for babies to be on and off and on and off of oxygen, he is needed a little more support than in the past.  Even on the CPAP that oxygen was generally set at room air or slightly above (21%), but this time he's in the 30s% for oxygen on the nasal canula.  The doctor said that if the lungs and wet it can cause them to need oxygen, then he went on to explain a condition some preemies have that have to do with the lungs and moisture.  He didn't think Samuel has been exhibiting signs of this condition because he hadn't really needed much oxygen in the past (and as I was very tired when he was telling me about it, I have no idea what it was...).  Now Samuel is getting some medicine to help him rid himself of extra fluids (his legs and feet have been kind of puffy, showing extra fluid retention), and as he has shown an ability to gain weight despite the meds, they are giving him some more.

The doctor told me that nothing he says can prepare parents for the amount of pee, that made me laugh. He's had some rather large wet diapers and we have had to change his clothes and bedding a little more frequently...  :-)

Last weekend was also the weekend of 2 baby showers.  I'm sorry if I did not invite everyone I intended to, I have been really preoccupied and tried to get everyone invited, but that doesn't always happen.  The showers were really good and we had company from out of town come.  I did leave Ben to entertain them, as I am rather busy with Sam.  Ben's Mom came out for the first time, so it was great for her to see Sam.  My Grandma was also out for the first time, which meant it was the first time we had 4 generations together (though we didn't get a picture of my Grandma, Dad, myself and Samuel together... oops!).  My Dad was born the day after my Grandma's birthday and Sam was born the day after my birthday, so that is a neat "family tradition."  Ben's cousin also came out with her 2 girls.

Let's just say, between Samuel starting to nurse (and not knowing which feeding time he is actually going to nurse) and the baby showers I got very off on my pumping.  Actually during the last 3 days I have pumped just over half of what I was pumping up till then.  So this week I have been extremely busy pumping like a crazy person to get my supply back up.  Today has already been better, but we'll have to see how the rest of pumping goes the rest of the day to be sure.  I know that Samuel is nursing and taking some of the supply himself, but he's definitely not taking half of my supply away with 2x nursing and at first it actually caused my supply to increase.  Nothing produces milk better than a nursing baby!  But considering I am just 3oz behind where I was at at supper time yesterday, today is already looking MUCH better.

That's all I have, Samuel is doing great and hopefully in the next day or 2 I'll actually update my facebook photo album as well...

Thursday, February 9 - No More IV!!!

So today was really an extremely uneventful day when it comes to Samuel (praise God for that!), last night however was slightly more eventful (but only in good ways).  As I mentioned yesterday his peripheral IV went bad and they replaced it with a new one.  Well, that happened again last night!  Only this time they decided not to replace it.

Yesterday I wrote about how that peripheral IV was really just replaced to keep it open while they made sure that he was taking the feedings well.  Last night when the IV went bad, they decided that since he had been taking his feedings so well there was no real need to replace it, just keep going forward without it.

So today they starting fortifying my milk.  Instead of just giving it as is they added calories.  This means instead of 20 calories per ounce he is getting 24 calories per ounce.  So far he has been taking to his feedings really well.  We continue to be amazed and thankful that everything has been going so well!

This morning Samuel was being slightly fussy.  I kangarooed with him during his noon feeding and he was just so cozy and loving it!  We hardly heard him the rest of the day!

Today I got out and went the the ymca for a little while.  I did a half hour walk using the fancy new gps/activity tracker my brother gave me for my birthday.  It's really cool and I can't wait to get out and take advantage of more of the features, but all in good time I suppose.  For now I just want to get over to the ymca and do some walking several times a week.  Then if that goes well, walk longer and more frequently!

I decided after Samuel was born that it makes no sense for me to stop everything I am doing just because he is in the NICU.  This school year I have been tutoring two students once a week, so after going to the ymca, I came home, did some chores and tutored for an hour.  It was good to concentrate on something else!

This evening I have just been tired, Samuel seemed to be doing quite well, so I called it an early night and went home before 9pm!!  Not that that helped too much as I still need to pump before going to bed and it is already almost 10:20.  Alas, I am a slave to the pump!  At least I am giving Samuel the nutrition he needs and that is all that matters.  :-)

January 27 - We Have a SON?!?!

My parents jumped in their car to come down as soon as they saw Ben's text that we were in labor and the baby was coming.  They just didn't see the message until 10:30 so they got here a little later than they wanted, but also just in time.

Shortly after they arrived my Dad (an LCMS pastor) and our pastor went upstairs with us to baptize little Samuel.  With him in the NICU we just wanted to make sure it happened, after all they were telling us most babies end up staying close to their due date (April 28th).  It was amazing to see him get baptized.

The rest of the day I spent just in shock that he was born, we have a son, I'm a mother, I'm no longer pregnant....  WHAT just happened????  It all happened so quickly, I just couldn't quite wrap my mind around it.  But we had family out and we had friends stopping by and that kept my mind occupied enough to not freak out that Sam was really just born.

We took the rest of the day kind of easy, I went and saw Samuel a few times.  I finally got to eat something around 4PM (the evening before I ended up having a small supper while Ben was resting, if I knew labor was really going to happen, I probably would have eaten a lot more).  One of the nurses came in and got me started on pumping.  Pumping was really awkward at first, as I really didn't have any idea of what I was doing except what the nurse said.  But I figured as long as I follow their advice I should be ok.  The advice they had been giving me up to that point seemed to be good advice.

That night after everyone left (Ben decided he wanted to sleep at home, and I was too tired to really care where he slept) I was able to pass out and sleep like I hadn't slept in months.  It felt really really good.  And maybe the next day I would begin to comprehend what just happened...