NICU Day #7

Timmy just officially had his one-week birthday! Happy birthday, sweetie! Cannot believe it has already been a week. Such a shock to think that just last Monday I was coming and going from another uneventful NST. Not sure what I was expecting to happen, but things sure went fast from there!

Here he is in all his sweetness!

Today has been my first day home alone with the kids for the first time in nine weeks. It is nice to be able to play the role of full-time mommy again. (Don't worry, Mom. We're still doing more movies than I care to fess up to. My body just isn't up to outings to the zoo just yet, although I do look forward to taking the kids to see the baby zebra that was born just days after my water broke. You'd think that zebra could have timed things better... =) )

Last night was wonderful! It was my longest NICU visit yet. Not entirely planned that way, thus, the delayed post.

I must admit I was getting very anxious to get to the hospital last night. I got there by 8:30 and, joy of joys, we had Laurel as our nurse last night. She was Timmy's nurse his first two nights in the NICU. She is wonderful and, since she requested Timmy last night, I know she's quite fond of our littlest handsome and that always adds another layer of comfort and trust. She is very good at giving me the days updates and telling me what she's doing while she's doing it. She is also a HUGE advocate of Kangaroo Care so she usually gets him to me as fast as she can. I LOVE it!

Timmy was still on the blue lights when I got there. However, Laurel told me that he had been given some slivers of suppository and had pooped a fair amount so she's pretty sure his bilirubin has dropped. They check his bilirubin every morning, so she couldn't say for certain but she wasn't going to hold me to the 30-minute rule. Hooray!

Here he is in the glow from the blue lights. (The nurse who got me set up initially forgot to turn them off. Not good, but at least he wasn't facing them. Laurel gave me permission to turn them off myself if it happens again.)

Don't freak out, I promise all these pictures are clean! It looks like a lot of skin, but it's nothing personal.

Without the total blue. Could he BE any cuter?!
In real color. Boy do I love this little guy!

These pictures were a little challenging to take. It's kind of tricky to hold the camera in the right spot so you get the entire baby while holding him at the same time. At first I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get a very good shot of him. He was just so snuggly peaceful.

We just snuggled and I couldn't stop kissing the top of his downy soft head for over three hours. (Yes, don't tell the charge nurse! 9pm until around 12:30am.) He really does have the softest head. Miraculously, he has a fair amount of blond hair. Many of the nurses have commented when we met that they "were wondering where he got his blond hair." (Apparently the majority of the babies in the NICU are of such heritage that they have dark hair so his kind of an anomoly. Cutest anomoly in there!) Of course, I feel obligated to comment that it's all natural, can't pass this stuff on from a bottle!

Timmy is still off the CPAP and any other respiratory assistance. He really is amazing! I have such hopes that he won't require any, since he really hasn't needed any additional oxygen since birth, but we are remaining cautiously optimistic, as we know that some small setbacks aren't uncommon in the NICU. Fortunately, so far, the only thing he has had trouble with is keeping his bilirubin down.

At this point, he is only on trophic feedings, which, if I'm close on what Laurel told me, means that they are not giving him nutritive feedings whatsoever. What he gets through the feeding line is only enough sustenance to for him to maintain body function, they really aren't giving him anything to help him grow at this point and he has held steady. He was born at 1070g and is now 1040g. (Down 1 ounce from his birth weight so he now weighs 2 lbs. 5 oz.) However, since he passed his echocardiogram on Monday, they started giving him little bits of breastmilk - 1ml every 6 hours. They gave him his first "feeding" yesterday at noon. He had a little bit come back out, but nothing at his 6pm feeding or the one at midnight, so things are looking good there. Again, she told me that these feedings are also not to help him grow but to help his digestive system figure out what it's supposed to do.

Dr. M stopped by as well. Always nice to have the random opportunity to ask him questions that have popped into my mind since delivery. It's also funny to see him when he's not decked out in scrubs. Apparently he just got back seeing Valentine's Day. Hope he got to go with his wife. He's at the hospital so much I often wonder how often they get to see each other. I'm very grateful that there are people out there willing to sacrifice so much of their time to be there for people who, like us, are in situations that are very emotionally taxing and require an advanced knowledge of certain topics. I'm also grateful to their families that let them make the sacrifice.

For the most part, it was a rather peaceful night, not too many beaps from the monitors. (Laurel told me that the "Q" word is forbidden in the NICU, so must work on avoiding that one!) As the hours flew by, as they do while I'm staring down at my sweet little preemie boy, I started trying to figure out just how long I could go before I really needed to pump. Around 11:30, I started thinking "midnight". Then Baby Girl B across the way decided things were getting a little monotonous and set off a few alarms. They needed to put her back on CPAP, so I was FORCED to hold my handsome little man just a little longer and just pump at his isolette-side.

It was about 5 hours from the last time I had pumped, so I got 1.5 oz. Which is actually really good for being not even a week postpartum and not having any help from baby. As I was sitting there, I heard Laurel call in a request for formula for another one of the babies, as there wasn't any more breastmilk and it broke my heart. I have been there. I have cried there. I am soooo very thankful to be have such a supply this time around. Laurel even told me not to bring in any more bottles because my bin is almost full. (We're just leaving the last half dozen spots for times I pump and stay.)

After a blessedly lengthy Kangaroo-ing, I was feeling a little guilty. However, Moe, the neonatal nurse practitioner who put in Timmy's PICC line, came by and just reassured us that mothering is just as essential. If he has to be under the lights an extra couple of hours from it, it was worth it. Love that woman!

To close, I'll share the picture of my feet from last night. They are getting better, just a sign of a lengthy bedrest followed by a lengthy week on my feet! (No, you may not use this picture as a "cankle" illustration!)