They were very busy in Carson's area today, so I did as much by myself as possible. It's good for the nurses to see us taking care of him on our own so there is no hold up when it's time to leave. They have to make sure we can take care of preemie before they release him to us. I love the opportunity to take care of him and really get to be mom for a little while. So much of that is taken away when they are in the NICU. Today I undressed him, took off his leads, changed his diaper, feed him, gave him a bath, held him for an hour, dressed him, and 'put him away' as they say there, which means tucked him in his little crib and situated him. It was such a good day with him.
The nurses say that he will 'wake up' closer to his due date. This picture is from a couple of days ago. It shows how much more alert he is these days. Around feeding time, he is starting to wake up and open his eyes which is definite progress.
He's been wearing a special hat to help keep his head round. Preemies spend a lot of time sleeping which can flatten their heads. This has a roll around the bottom that keeps the back of head lifted a little. He also has a tendency to look to the right, which can tighten the muscles in his neck. This helps with all that b/c he generally looks straight unless he wiggles his way over to the side. He usually wears it between feedings and then off between the next feedings.
I will be so happy when I can hold him without wires. These are his leads, plus one more on his foot. He also has a security ankle bracelet. The security bracelet actually shuts down the elevators if someone were trying to take him.
Today is day 15 in the NICU. I was really hoping he would come home this week. He was put on all bottles earlier in the week to see how he would do, but it wore him out. They put him on queue based next which means he only gets a bottle when he acts like he's ready to eat. If he doesn't queue, then they would just tube feed him. Right now he's getting a bottle every other feeding. Next step is two bottles to one tube, and then all bottles. As soon as he tolerates all bottles for 24 hours, the process of sending him home could go quickly. I'm ready for him to be home, but obviously we want to be sure he's ready. If he stumbles at home and has to go back to the hospital, he will be admitted to the pediatric floor instead of the NICU. We definitely do not want that. Our prayer is that he will come home soon and be 100% ready when he does.
While I was visiting Carson, Miles hung out with Darrin at volleyball camp. He loves being in the gym. The girls include him in so much. How cute is this???
I came home from the hospital and decided to lay down for a while before Darrin and Miles got home. I woke up two hours later at 7pm. They got home shortly after I woke up. Miles recently did some yard work to earn a video game.
I needed these plants dug up, the weeds pulled, and the ground smoothed over. When he heard that I was willing to buy him a video game, he ran to get his wheel barrow and shovel. I was going to end up buying the video game any way, so at least I got a chore done that I couldn't do.
His video game arrived today, five days late. He's been checking the mail every day. His day was made when Darrin said he'd play with him for an hour. "Greatest dad in the whole world. There could never be a better dad than you."
Their hour of video game time is almost over. Time to put Miles to bed and spend some time with Darrin. Darrin and I have gotten into a routine of watching TV together at night in the living room. He watches Netflix on his iPad with wireless headphones and I watch the TV. My love language is quality time. It's amazing how just being in the same room does me so much good. It's been a great day. My heart is happy.
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