Thanksgiving!

Weight up again:  4 lb. 6.8 oz.

I think that's appropriate for Thanksgiving, right?  As Dad explained it to me, the primary objective of the holiday is to eat so much that your stomach can't fit any more.  If that's the plan, then I did great today!

When Mom and Dad came to visit this afternoon they found out that though I had had a pretty good night, I did have one major brady episode early this morning, and then spit up a lot of my previous feeding.  Because of those incidents they didn't want Mom or Dad to take me out and try bottle or breastfeeding today.  Instead, Mom just visited with me while Dad was feeding Rory.

I woke up enough to say hi to her and show her my eyes, which I know the parents always like:

Mom also changed me - my diaper was still pretty clean, but after the stimulation of being moved around to be changed, that got my digestive tract going on both ends (Nurse Janetta said that's not uncommon since it's some of the same muscle work to put things out the bottom as to push it back up out the top).  So right after Mom got the new diaper on me, I simultaneously did a projectile spitup and a giant poop.  Mom was just glad she had gotten the diaper on in time!

After that major effort I got sleepy.

So I went back to sleep and Mom and Dad went home to have their own Thanksgiving dinner.

What am I thankful for this year?  Well, I got to be born, that's gotta be the biggie, right?  Aside from that, thankful for my family (even Rory, for putting up with all the alarms I set off in our nursery) and for everyone at the hospital who helps take care of me.  I mean, it'd be better if they'd stop messing with me so much, but they do keep me fed, changed, and breathing so I appreciate that.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

23 November

A little bigger than yesterday:  4 lb. 6 oz., and handling my breathing pretty well (except when I forget), they've been able to keep me at 21 percent oxygen on my nasal flow.

In fact, Dr. Green upped my feeding a little bit since I handled 38 ml well (no major spitup or residuals the past couple days) to 40 ml per feeding.  They also tried to see if I can handle that over 60 minutes instead of 90, and the answer appears to be "no" - but more on that later.

Mom and Dad came by around 11 a.m. to practice feedings again, and found me once again fast asleep.

Today they were meeting the lactation consultant to try breastfeeding me and Rory for the first time (not at the same time for the moment - though Mom says we have to learn how to do that eventually since it would take too much time to do us one after the other every time).


When they arrived, Nurse Sandy told on me (boo!) that I had had a pretty bad bradycardia spell during my 8:30 a.m. feeding and had taken a lot of stimulation to get my stats back up (really the story is that I had overheard Dr. Green saying I might be ready to move to the Special Care nursery soon and didn't want to move so realized I need to throw in a couple spells now and again - but we'll just keep that on the QT).

So since I had had a significant episode earlier that morning, they said I couldn't try breastfeeding, I had to stick with the tube feeding while I watched (my eyes may be closed, but I knew what was going on) Rory try it instead.

They did let me at least come out of the crib; Dad held me for my feeding while Mom was working with Rory.  However when I had another spell of bradycardia and major desat-ing, the nurses put me back in the crib.  They seemed to be pretty freaked out over a minor drop in heartrate as they and Dad were vigorously trying to stimulate me - I kept my cool and just yawned then went back to sleep.

After I got all my stats back to where they were supposed to be (they had to turn up my oxygen a little bit but then were able to put it back afterward).

About an hour later I had yet ANOTHER bradycardia episode.  I did recover, and then Dad just sat with me for a bit while I slept.

Meanwhile, Nurse Sandy talked to the doctors and they decided to slow down my feedings back to 90 minutes again since I have not been handling the faster (60 minute) feedings.  Hopefully I'll handle things better that way, especially with Thanksgiving coming up I want to be able to eat myself a good Thanksgiving dinner!

22 November

Back to putting on weight - up to 4 lb. 5.3 oz.!

Probably helps that I've been doing better with my feeds, especially with the 90 minute delivery time.  Holding steady at 38 ml per feeding.

Mom and Dad came by this morning to see me try eating from the bottle again after I had some success yesterday.  An OT was there again to help, but this time Mom fed me herself.

I was pretty sleepy when we started which made the initial going kind of rough.

But eventually I woke up enough to give it the old college try.

I wasn't able to take quite as much as yesterday - only 10 ml instead of 18 - but the OT and nurses still seemed pretty happy about that and considered it a success.  After all, this was only my second time ever trying to eat with my mouth!

After the feeding Mom burped me which was not much fun (I think my expression here says it all!):

But after the feeding and burping was done, it was nice to have a little quality time with Mom while I was actually AWAKE for once.  I showed off some of my new facial control, which she was duly impressed with.

Pretty clever of me, huh?  I'm still working on a couple other expressions but those are the ones I've got down for now.  After she held me a little longer I got tired so they put me back in my crib to rest.

I got some good sleep and had a pretty uneventful afternoon.

Then Mom and Dad came BACK in the evening to hold me and Rory again - I guess the nurses want us on some sort of twice-a-day contact schedule, although I have to say that's quite a bit of interaction for me for one day!  I tried to wake up and say hi, but was pretty much dead to the world after all the excitement of the morning.

Nevertheless, Mom was supposed to let me try nuzzling at the breast and gamely did so even though I was not real awake to try much of anything.  I did my best, but got tired and went back to sleep pretty quickly.  Luckily for me Mom's comfy!

I had a few minor desats while I was sleeping on Mom, but no major disasters.  She held me for about an hour and a half while I had my evening feeding and it was a nice little visit - especially for me, since it's nice to sleep on a warm body rather than just in the crib like usual!

Busy day overall but I think a good one.

21 November

Putting on some weight again and now up to 4 lb. 4.8 oz., check it out:

And I'll also note that I'm meeting my goal of "tolerate feeds" with few spit-ups - in fact I've been doing well enough that they raised my feedings to 38 ml per time, although still delivering it slowly over 90 minutes so my tummy doesn't get too full all at once.

But a little weight gain is hardly the big news of the day.  Take a look, notice anything different?

That's right, I'm out of my incubator and into a big boy crib!

So far so good, the nurses say I've been regulating my body temperature well outside the incubator - though truth be told I'm cheating a little by staying buried inside a pile of blankets...

(the blankets also make it easier to hide it from the nurses when I'm trying to pull my nasal tubes out - no luck so far but I'll keep at it!)

More big news today, though no pictures since Mom forgot the camera - the occupational therapist came by this morning and gave me my first try at bottle feeding!  And not to brag, but I did pretty darn well for my first stab at it - didn't even wake up completely and still took 18 ml from the bottle.  They said I can try again tomorrow (they want to ease me into it, which is good since it's a lot more work than just getting food through the tube) so we'll see how that goes.

Anyhow, a couple of big steps today!  I'll sleep well tonight and give the bottle another go tomorrow morning....

Good night!

20 November

A quiet day overall.  My feedings (still at 24 cal/oz) have been upped to 38 ml per time since I've been keeping my food down and digesting pretty well the past 24 hours.

I'm also staying stable on the nasal cannula, but now that I've gotten rid of my CPAP my next goal is to get rid of these tubes too.  I think they've finally gotten wise to my plans, which explains why they keep wrapping up my hands so I can't grab the tube.  Luckily, though, I've figured out that with this new tube I don't even need my hands - if I just mash my face into the bedding and then rub it around I can usually get the tubes to come out.

The nurses don't seem to like this plan, and somehow convinced Mom and Dad to take their side - Dad even told on me to Nurse Brittany when I got them out while he was sitting with me this morning!  But don't worry, I'll get 'em out eventually!

Other than that nothing much to report.  Just a solid day of sleeping and growing.

19 November

The big board says I'm still 4 lb. 3.7 oz., though I'm suspicious that they just haven't updated it since yesterday since I certainly FEEL bigger.  What do you think?

One change from yesterday is that they put me in a new incubator.  As far as I can tell it's the same (keeps me warm?  check.) but a little different model, the top doesn't come up on this one.

However, that's minor compared to the breathing news.  You might notice that unlike yesterday when I had just one tube - a feeding tube in my mouth - now I have these tubes in my nose (including my feeding tube, which was moved there to keep me from pushing it out of my mouth again (see previous posts from yesterday and the day before).

Long story short, I was desating when the doctor examined me this morning, so they decided to put me on nasal cannula to give me a little assistance (only 0.5 L flow - better than my sister who's on a full liter).  And it's still at 21% oxygen so really I'm not getting that much help.  And it does allow me to keep breathing even when I'm mashing my face into the bedding:

Anyhow, highlight of the day was when Mom and Dad came to visit and I got to kangaroo with Mom for almost two hours!  I was a little fussy at first but then settled down, and didn't have any major desats the whole time which is pretty impressive for me (last time I kangarooed with Dad I got so relaxed that I forgot to breathe OR beat my heart, which apparently is not good....).

 I actually slept pretty well there - Mom's comfy!

I should also note that I was getting my feeding while being held, and didn't spit up any of it!  I think having the tube in my nose instead of mouth and getting fed over 90 minutes instead of 60 both help with that.

When Mom had to put me back so she could go pump, Nurse Brittany put me back in my incubator and dressed me in some clothes Grandma A had sewn from doll patterns.

I was a little upset about this - party because I wanted ninjas on my clothes and instead got teddy bears, but mostly because I thought this meant they weren't gonna wrap me up anymore and I like my boundaries!  Thankfully, that turned out not to be true.  In fact, it's even better since now I get a hat that doesn't come with a chinstrap like the stupid CPAP headgear - yes, I realize it's a little big, but this is the smallest the patterns come!

After the hat was on they swaddled me back up nice and cozy...

... which as you can see made me pretty happy!  After that I drifted off to sleep pretty quickly.  Sweet dreams to me!