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!