28-30 November

Been delinquent posting this week, so let's get right into the past three days, which have seen me make some more progress.


On Monday the 28th I was up to 4 lb. 10.6 oz.  Apparently that's the weight where they make you start wearing clothes, which I'm trying to adjust to...

...but am still somewhat suspicious of:

Mom and Dad came to visit me and Rory in the morning instead of the afternoon for a change, which gave them the rare chance to catch me in full-on awake mode (usually I'm pretty awake for an hour in the morning but sleepy the rest of the day).

In honor of their visit I showed them some new expressions I've been working on (they said these all look pretty much the same but what do they know, I think they're just not appreciating the subtle nuances I'm offering)

Mom tried breastfeeding with me for a second time - last time I had been pretty sleepy so they thought I might do better while awake.

And I did do better!  Took about 15 ml breastfeeding (obviously hard to tell exactly, but did roughly half a feeding's worth) and then had some good burps.

After all that work I was pretty sleepy, plus I'm often tired after a meal anyway (maybe Mom has leftover tryptophan in her milk), so they put me back in my crib.

It was a battle - I wanted to stay awake and check out all the activity going on, but my eyes kept drooping so there was a lot of back and forth:

Finally I fell asleep, which was good since I needed some rest to deal with the eye exam I had later in the day.  Let's not even get into it other than to say it's not my favorite part of being in the NICU.  In fact, let's just move on to the next day, nothing to see here, move along....


On Tuesday the 29th  Didn't feel like getting up this morning; I was hiding in my blankets when it was time for my morning feeding:

 

Since it was time to eat, though, the nurses unwrapped me from my swaddling and I eventually woke up.

Then I spied Mom and Dad, who had come in the morning again.

 

I waved hello to let them know I was happy they were there.

This time Dad fed me (bottle-feeding, not breastfeeding, obviously - I've apparently got that one figured out a little better than my sister!) while Mom breastfed Rory.

I started out okay, took about 12 ml then needed to be burped, and after the burping couldn't get into it again, only took about 6 more.  Even still, that was close to half my total feeding so I feel okay about it.  And I had a nice visit with Dad.

After he put me back so he could go to work, I gave him my usual favorite expression:

(note:  this look has a lot of different meanings, rough translation of this particular variation is "I'm the best thing in the world, how could you possibly have any interest in doing anything other than staying here with me?")

(Editor's, i.e. Dad's response:  Fair enough, Ben, I would rather stay with you guys.  However, since you and your sister decided you couldn't wait to be born and came out two months early, someone has to go to work so we have health insurance to pay the massive NICU bills you guys are racking up (most recent statement I saw already was over $200K), unless you're willing to go without a roof over your head, food to eat, and clothes to wear, when you come home, because we've gone bankrupt.  So until you get a job and can start covering some of these bills, I'm going to have to leave from time to time)

Okay, I guys I can buy that.  In any case I went right back to sleep afterward - drinking a bottle is a lot of work, way more than getting fed through the tube in my nose!

Wednesday the 30th was a red-letter day:  I didn't have ANY spit-ups!

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful no-news-is-good-news sort of day.  Mom came by in the morning and found me already awake, just waiting for her to show up!

Since she breastfed me yesterday, she bottle-fed me today (I think they're trying to get me comfortable with both, and like to use the bottle at least sometimes since it's easier to monitor exactly how much I'm getting - speaking of which, I drank a whole 25 ml, which is about 30% more than yesterday, so I'm making good progress even if I'm still not able to take a whole feeding via bottle yet!)

I did a giant poop in the afternoon, and split it up just enough so that Nurse Lynda had to change me three times in a row - how's that for timing?

Dad came by to visit later in the afternoon and found me sound asleep.  I've gotten the thumb-sucking thing about 90% figured out; I can get my hand to my mouth and my thumb pointed toward the mouth, I just can't get that final step of actually getting it in my mouth.  I'll keep trying.

Not much to report after that.  No major brady or apneac episodes, so combine that with the no spit-ups and it was a good day!

27 November

Up a little to 4 lb. 8.7 oz.

Not much to report today.  Nurse Robyn tried bottle feeding me this morning, I took about 5 ml.  As for the rest of it, in the doctors' continuing efforts to alleviate my spit-up issues, they've now extended my feedings to 2 hours apiece.  So far it seems to be working okay - notice anything different in this picture?

That's right - no spitup on my face!

Mom and Dad came by this afternoon to visit.  I tried to wake up and say hi...

but wasn't able to pull it off.

So they stayed and just talked to me for awhile even though I was asleep.

Mom looks stylish, huh?

That's about it for today, not much excitement.  Doing a lot better with my apnea and bradycardia since I've been on the caffeine, hopefully I'll have another good night.  Mom and Dad are coming early tomorrow to try bottle feeding me again so I'd better get some rest!

26 November

(sorry I'm low on pictures today, but not my fault - I can do all the posing in the world, and it doesn't do any good if my parents don't have the camera ready!  Also, most of their visit Dad was holding Rory and Mom holding me which according to them makes it tricky to take pics.  Again, not my problem.)

Up to 4 lb. 8.1 oz., not much of a gain but I'll take whatever I can get!  Also, I did a lot better with my breathing and heartrate overnight, probably because I was back on caffeine, which meant I was allowed to try breastfeeding today.

When Mom and Dad first arrived this morning I was bundled up and hiding in my blankets, nice and toasty!

Mom took me out and I had my first attempt at breastfeeding.

I was able to latch on and drink a little bit, even though not a full feed.  Pretty good for my first time though I think.

Afterward she held me for another hour and we had a good little visit - I even opened my eyes for awhile!

Then Nurse Cathie helped put me back in my crib, and I immediate made a massive poop which both her and Mom were impressed by - though I think Mom might also have been relieved it didn't happen while she was holding me in case my diaper leaked...

I woke up for a little bit again in the crib to check out what was going on and say hi to Dad after he was done holding Rory.

But that took a lot of energy (moving my eyes around takes a lot of muscle control!) so I went back to sleep pretty much immediately afterward.  Good night!

25 November

I'm now six weeks post-birth, or looked at another way only five weeks left till when I was supposed to be born!  Put on a little more weight, I'm up to 4 lb. 8 oz.

Dad asked if I could give him less to transcribe since he has other work to do over the holiday weekend so I'll try to keep things short.  A picture says a thousand words anyway, right?  So I'll just focus on the pictures from today.  Let's see what we've got.

Okay, first here's a few of me sleeping, Mom and Dad thought it was funny how I like to have my arms up.

And of course, after sleeping comes waking up.  I think my expression says it all about how interested in waking up I was:

That was a big yawn, got Dad yawning right along with me.  But after that I was wide awake - at least briefly (see below)....

My adventure for the day was another stab at bottle feeding.  Dad held me this time and I was really excited at the start, but then after I had eaten a little decided that was about as much work as I was ready to put into eating - I still get the food anyway, they just put it through the tube so I don't have to do all the effort myself.  That's what I call living the high life!

In the end I only took about 6 ml of my 42 ml feeding through the bottle, but that was enough to put me right back to sleep.

I did, however, manage to drool about 2 ml of it out of the side of my mouth while Dad was feeding me so I could get it all over his pants.  It's my way of marking my territory - got the shoes a few days ago, the pants today, I'll get a shirt this week and then I'll have a whole outfit "labeled"!

All in all a successful day, wouldn't you say?  After Dad held me awhile they put me back in my crib just in time to spit up all over it.  But I didn't care, just went right back to sleep.

If I can get through the next 24 hours with few or no major brady / apnea spells, they're going to let me try to breastfeed tomorrow.  The doctors also started giving me caffeine again since I had been having a lot of episodes the past couple days - hopefully that won't last too long since even though it helps my breathing it's not helping my reflux and they won't let me take Prilosec or anything like that yet!

TTFN....