A Day in the Life of Adam

I eat (wherever, however, and by whomever will feed me)

I sleep

Well, sometimes I don't really sleep

I cuddle

I wiggle all over the place when I'm getting my diaper changed

And I take baths

And then I do it all over again!

What a Privilege!

So today marks two weeks since we were able to bring the baby home. I think that during this time we have been able to develop somewhat of a routine, and Adam seems pretty content with his new digs. Definitely, being a parent is not easy, and I can attest that is true for infants. 'Round the clock feedings, diaper changing, and especially lack of sleep can add up to busy days and red eyes! However, there is also no greater privilege than to have a precious little life in your hands. Knowing that you are responsible for him is sometimes overwhelming, but so is seeing him sleep peacefully to awaken and look up into your eyes. We are so blessed!

Today we are preparing for Christmas and getting to spend time with our family. I am making sure presents are wrapped and everything is ready and Adam is...well, sleeping. But sleeping peacefully and dreaming sweet baby dreams.

Merry Christmas! May your homes be filled with happiness and love and may we all remember one little baby who came long ago to change our world. He is the reason for it all.

Baby's Room

Awhile ago I promised to post pictures of the nursery when it was put together. Here you go! The thing hanging in the first picture is a propeller plane light pull for the fan that I found online.

First Trip to the Doctor, Take 2

Adam’s first trip to the pediatrician was scheduled for 10:30 on Friday. After our first day at home on Thursday, we were seriously wondering how we were going to make it out of the house in time for the appointment. I felt like we needed to start getting ready on Thursday evening! So we did, kinda. We packed a diaper bag and tried to prepare as much as we could, choosing outfits, blankets, food, paperwork, etc. to make it easier on Friday morning. By 9:50 AM, we were ready to go, and feeling pretty proud of ourselves. We placed Adam in the carseat and David went out to warm up the car, but he came back in with bad news. Our car wouldn’t start. So of course I said, “Are you sure?”. Yep. The problem with this is the baby’s seat is installed in the car and David drives a pickup truck. I called the doctor’s office to find out if we could change the appointment time and David pushed our car out so we could try to jump it (once we located the jumper cables). On the phone, I was told 1) we were already checked in and 2) that we really needed to get the baby to the office today. (Gee, thanks!) We are delinquent parents already.

We were able to start the car, so David went to get the battery tested and I was able to get an appointment for 1:45 PM. It ended up that our battery was nearly dead. So we fed Adam again and went through all the motions a second time and we managed to make it by our appointment. From all this, we learned that it takes a lot more time and planning to leave the house than it used to.

At the appointment, the pediatrician examined Adam and everything went well. He weighed 4 lbs, 15 oz on their scale, so that is nearly a four ounce gain since we left the hospital!

Home at Last, Part II

(Yep, that's my reflection in the door...great photographer that I am!)

After Adam’s tube was out on Friday, we started hearing the word “home” several times from the nurses at the NICU. Sunday morning, I was determined to be there when the doctor came to do Adam’s assessment. It was then that the doctor said Adam was doing well and even though he was not yet 35 weeks, it had been 5 days since the caffeine was stopped and Adam had not had a heart rate drop. After talking it over, we were told that if he continued to gain weight and did not have any events, we could take him home on Tuesday, Dec. 9th, which would be his one month birthday and 7 days since his last event. The doctor asked if I was okay with taking him home and I told him I would take him right then if he would let me!

All of the going home preparations began on Sunday. He received two shots on Sunday, which I hated, then he had his car seat challenge. We brought in his seat and the base, and he was strapped into the seat for one hour with his monitors on. He passed this, too. He also had an eye exam which was worse than 5 shots if you ask me. I cried and cried, and then came home and cried more. His eyes were dilated, then numbed, then this metal thing was used to hold each eye open for the exam. They were puffy, red, and even more light sensitive than normal, and he held his eyes as squinted as he possibly could for about 10 minutes! It was pitiful, and I don’t want to think about it anymore (though we have to do this again in a couple of weeks)…

(Here's Uncle Scotty installing the carseat late Monday night in the hospital parking garage!)

On Monday, everything was still on track and more preparations were made. On Tuesday I came in ready to take him home. I fed him, then his pictures were taken and I put him in his “going home” outfit. We were practically out the door, just waiting for the doctor to come by when Adam got a little choked and had a heart rate drop. This made my heart drop too! Fortunately, the doctor there on Tuesday said that she would feel more comfortable sending him home on an apnea monitor (we could have been told that he had to restart his 7 day count). So we completed an infant CPR class and monitor training, then David and I spent the night with Adam in a room on the pediatrics unit to do “Care by Parent”. This was basically to help us feel comfortable with Adam and the monitor. This was fine, except the nurses came in to take his blood pressure, which he hates, even more frequently than it was taken in the NICU!

Finally, once we saw the doctor, received our instructions and had our questions answered, we were able to leave with him around noon on Wednesday. It was WONDERFUL to get to bring him home!

Home at last

Sorry for the lack of posts. Things have been wild the last couple of days. The doctors surprised us early this week by saying he was ready to go home on Tuesday, but after a slight setback we got him home on Wednesday afternoon.

Thank you all for praying for us and supporting us in getting our little man home.

A more in depth story of what happened on our way out of the hospital will follow.

Lisa and David

Finally Tubeless

Big surprise on Friday night, when we went to see our little man the nurse said that they took out his NG tube. As he keeps growing and eating more we knew this would eventually happen, but we didn't expect it so soon. Everyone please keep praying that he eats well and keeps putting on weight so he doesn't have to get a new tube put in.

Now that he doesn't have a NG tube the only thing he has left is to not have any more heart rate drops and to keep putting on weight. Once the doctors are satisfied with those two things we will get to bring in our car seat for a test to make sure he can tolerate being in the car seat for an hour. If he passes that test we will be ready to take him home. Barring set backs he should be home in time for Christmas.

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support.

Lisa and David (aka Mommy and Daddy)

New Roommate

The past two days have been good ones for the baby, as in "no news is good news", right? Adam keeps growing well, up to 4 lbs, 5.8 oz on Wednesday and 4 lbs, 6.3 oz today. The doctors stopped his caffeine on Tuesday, so now we are hoping for no heart rate drops. Monday Adam was started on a medication to help stimulate red blood cell production, and his dose of iron was increased, as he was a little anemic. The new medication might help prevent him from needing a blood transfusion. I kinda felt like this came out of nowhere but after researching, anemia is very common in premature babies for several reasons. I am just praying that the medication works and he does not need a transfusion. While I'm at it, I also hope that it works in a timely manner and does not keep him in the hospital longer. He is still doing well at eating, and now can eat by mouth as tolerated, meaning he still has the NG tube in case he needs it. Feedings are up to 36 ml each time, though he still tires pretty easily on some feedings. Temperature control has not been a big issue in his new crib, either. Today Adam is 34 weeks (gestational age).

Adam has a new roommate too - one little girl was able to go home, and his new roommate was born the day after Adam and was nearly his exact size and length. She is doing great eating from the bottle (she can gobble it up in 5 minutes!) but she still has a way to go to make 4 lbs. So its a good example for me to see how babies progress differently. Gotta run - can't wait to see his sweet face!

Bath #3, Baby Does #2

Yesterday evening David and I gave Adam his third tub bath (well, at least the 3rd one that we've given him). First he got sponge baths in his isolette, then we were able to do a tub bath but David was already scheduled to work. The last time, I did the bath in a separate room all by myself, and while its nice to have him alone for a little while, away from all the nurses and monitors, the bath was stressful. I was so glad to have David there to help me last night.

The evening nurse had everything all gathered up for us when we got there and we took him over to a bed with a heater over it in a procedures room. We went ahead and weighed him so he didn't have to get undressed again at midnight, and he weighed 4 lbs, 4 oz! Many times, the nurses all have different thoughts on how to give the baby a bath, but this time we were able to figure it out ourselves. We got the water just right, David got Adam undressed, and we placed him in the tub. David was holding and I was just starting to wash him when he tooted and made a bubble. We immediately doubled over with laughter and then realized he had left us a floater in the tub! The baby was just sitting there looking at us and we were laughing but trying to figure out what to do next.

I started emptying the tub and David took Adam out and quickly wrapped him up so he wouldn't get cold. By the time I had the tub clean, we looked and he had peed all in his blanket! What lessons we learned! The rest of the bath was great and we had him all cleaned up and were dressing him when we realized he had managed to pull out his NG tube! So it was very eventful!

However, we were able to get a picture of Adam with nothing on his face!

Warning: Next bath Thursday!

Three Weeks Old

Adam is still doing great, and today he is 3 weeks and 1 day old! He continues to get better at eating, but is still getting food through his tube about every other feeding. His weight today is up to 4 lbs, 2.8 oz (it was 4 lbs, 2 oz on Sunday). The nurse who took care of him last night had not taken care of him in about two weeks and she told me over the phone that he ate his bottle well at 3 AM and that she can tell a big difference in how alert he is. She described him as "playful" during his feeding time.

The next step is for Adam to start growing out of his heart rate drops. Around 34 weeks gestational age (this coming Thursday for Adam) the doctors will likely stop his caffeine and see how he does. Hopefully, he will not have more without the medication. We want him to get rid of them altogether!