3rd Feeding

Well...60 cc's!

They said if he had 3 strong feedings his feeding tube could come out! So here's Cael without the feeding tube!! Lookin good little man, lookin good.

Hopefully Cael's weight is up tonight at his weigh in. :) His weigh in - wonder if he'll be a basketball player or a wrestler when he grows up???

Last night Cael's weight was up 5 grams. So he was 5 lbs 13.1 oz. Still a peanut that's for sure. Eric had to go pick up a different "going home" outfit for our little monkey. Never thought I'd need any preemie sized clothes.

Every day the nurses fill out what's called a little "care card" It has "Today's Plan" on it if you will and on Cael's it says, "If he does well on bottles for 24 hours he can go home Sunday" I just looked at his card for the first time a few minutes ago and when I read that I started crying!! I was hoping that was the case but I didn't realize we really truly were that close to getting out of here!!!

What do you think of your baby brother Kylie??? He told me to tell you that he loves you and can't wait to meet you! Mommy and daddy love and miss you and can't wait to see you!

2nd Feeding

Cael's second feeding went great! It wasn't quite as big as his first, but still a success! He downed 60 cc's!! Go Cael! Keep up the good work!

Dazed & Confused

You know - the whole point of a game plan - is to follow it right? Apparently Cael's nurse was unaware the reason one comes up with a game plan. She gave him tubes all through the night because she thought I needed some rest. Ok, pardon my french here, but no shit sherlock. My son is in the NICU, do you really think I can sleep at night?? Or at all??

Then the resident this morning said let's do tubes after every feeding to get him hydrated. Ok, obviously dealing with preemies isn't my profession so I obviously don't know what's best for them, however, after spending almost two weeks in here, you kind of pick up what's going on. And to me, you do the tube immediately after the feeding for those just starting out. So my questions are these: 1 - why didn't we do that right away and 2 - what do you mean hydrate him? Every single darn diaper he has is wet. Poor resident. I feel bad for her as she's been nothing but sweet, but I had to question her decision. Luckily, we've got a stellar nurse today and she thinks that's silly so said that we wouldn't do that.

I've also been asking for the past few days if I can feed Cael by bottle because my mastitis has affected my milk flow and he's having to work harder for it. (As if he's not already working his butt off, we have to add my silly complication into the mix and make it harder for him). Everyone keeps saying that bottle and breast are pretty similar. Umm...pretty sure they're not but ok. So again I go to our second favorite nurse and say, "can I at least try one bottle please - if he doesn't like it I'll do whatever you tell me to, but I feel like he's not nursing as well since I've had this" Keeping in mind I'm in tears at this point because they want to just tube my little man all the time and I know that that means we're moving in the opposite direction. Bless her heart she said, "we can do whatever you want" So we warmed up 60 cc's of milk (Cael's goal for 3 hours is 55 cc's). Well wouldn't you know it he downed the 60 and then drank 20 more. So here's to all of the nurses and residents that wouldn't listen to me - "Mama knows what's best, don't disregard what I have to say because my degree isn't in neonatal care"

Obviously the most important thing here is that Cael just had a rockstar feeding. Hopefully he's able to keep it all down and continue to feed so well this afternoon. Carissa (Cael's nurse of the day) said we can keep doing bottles all day and night if I want. And honestly - if he's going to drink that well from the bottle - you're darn right I'm going to keep giving him bottles!! Shoot I have to pump after every single feeding anyway so there's no difference to me.

On another note, I might get kicked out of the room tonight. There are a few babies that are close to going home so someone else might need the room. Quite honestly, I'm surprised I didn't get kicked out sooner. I'm excited for the other parents that their babies are close, but sad to be losing my bathroom. I'll still get a room, but it's not one that I can bring Cael into. It's basically a room with two chairs that fold into a bed and has a tv in it. Right now I have a queen sized bed, a mini fridge, a bathroom with a toilet, shower and sink and a nice little closet for all of my crap. Rest assured though, my nurse said that if Cael continues to do well for the next 24 hours, there's a chance we might still get out of this popsicle stand tomorrow even though he won't be in a room with me! So please cross your fingers and pray like hell that the bottles were all that he needed!!

Ok, I'll keep you all posted if there are any changes! In the meantime I need to get my stuff organized in case I really do get kicked out of my little luxury suite today.

Love to all~

P.s. I'm sorry for my slightly angry post in the beginning, I was just a little frustrated...

GAME PLAN

Ok folks, here's the plan for tonight. Cael had three nursings with me, and then a tube at 5:15. The plan for tonight is for me to nurse 3 times (at 8, 10 and midnight) then he'll get a 3 hour tube (a tube feeding of milk that will last 3 hours) at 1 and another at 3. Then hopefully at 6am tomorrow, he's strong enough to try strictly nursing all day. If not, we'll tube him, but really hoping he gets a good rest tonight and gets some strength built up!

On a more random topic. I just got done listening to about a weeks worth of voicemails. My apologies to everyone. I barely have enough service in my room to text let alone talk on the phone or even listen to voicemails. So I'm sorry if you think that I've been neglecting all of you. I've just been with Cael pretty much 24/7. Whether its in our little room or if it's in the NICU with him.

Alrighty, good night everyone!

Oops, I lied. One more random for everyone. Every person that sees Cael comments on his hair :) I think it's pretty darn cute. Can't wait for you all to see it in person

Update After Rounds This AM

You know the consultant,residents and nurses probably wonder why I even bother to listen to rounds every day, but I do. For Cael there haven't really been any changes. Overall, he's a darn healthy little boy. He's just one who doesn't have the strength to keep himself nourished for 24 hours at a time. I guess there was one update. He's less jaundice today than what he has been. As you may know, he was under lights for quite a few days, but since his bilirubin was down, they took him off of them. Yet he remained yellow. I'm hoping with his jaundice going away he has more energy and strength to feed. He's just coming off of a 3 hour tube so I'm hoping that he'll nurse well for me. After that - mommy's off to her scrapbooking class! I know this is putting the cart in front of the horse here, but I'm going to go ahead and ask for the going home pages to work on in hopes that we're not still here next Friday for the next class!!!!

T.G.I.F.

Last night was a good night overall. Cael got a tube at 8pm and again at 4:45 this morning. He was just a tired little dude this morning so I decided that he should get another tube to keep up his progress. He was up I want to say it was 45 grams last night and had consistently wet diapers!! So this morning when he was acting sluggish, I didn't want to be stubborn and think that we had to breastfeed. The tube is what's best for him right now so that's what we'll do. The sooner we "beef" him up the sooner he'll be strong enough to nurse around the clock.

So when will we get out of here? It's hard to say, here's my prediction. Since we're supposed to be getting some pretty crappy weather this weekend - My guess would be that we would get discharged during the worst part of the storm. If that's the case though and I don't think I can make it home. Consider this a warning to my friends and family in or near the Rochester area - If the weather is bad and I can't make it home - there's no way we're spending another night here so don't be surprised if I come knocking on your door! Don't worry though, Cael and I would be easy house guests.

In all seriousness, it's hard to say. Maybe the extra tubes yesterday and this morning will be just what he needed and now nursings will take off. Or maybe we need to do another day of alternating between the two so might not be until Sunday...or even later than that. Basically the only thing I know is that tomorrow would be the earliest and the 27th of December would be the latest.

Again, if there's anything to update after rounds, I'll be sure to post it. Have a great day everyone and drive safely if you must go somewhere. Love to all~

New Goals

First things first - here's Cael's most recent mugshot :)

Well...
We won't be going home today. In fact, we might not even be going home tomorrow. But for the first time in the past three days, I'm not feeling discouraged about that fact. I spoke with our favorite nurse, lactation consultant, residents and the consultant that's on today and it's a good thing that we're still here. The way they kind of described it was like this, when they have a baby that's say 32 weeks old, they'll gradually introduce breastfeeding. For example, one feeding a day, then two, three four etc...With 36 weekers on, its trial and error. Sometimes they'll take right off, other times not so much. They also mentioned that babies have more energy when they're 7% from their birth weight or less. Right now Cael's down 12%. So really - it makes a lot of sense why he gets tuckered out so soon.

So. Our new goal is this, we'll do 3 or 4 breastfeeds and see how he's eating and how his diapers look and if they're looking dry, we'll tube him. Hopefully in doing this, we'll gradually see his weight climb, his energy level grow and have his urine output increase as well. I just sat with the lactation consultant during our last feeding and we're tweaking the way I do things too, so hopefully with everything combined, we're that much closer to getting out of here. Cael's nurse said she doesn't think she'll be seeing us anymore on her next shift (which is Sunday night) so I hope she's right. In the meantime, that's where we're at. I'm taking my good ole antibiotic so I can get better and Cael will get some tubes. All in all, though it's not quite what I was hoping for, it's really what's best for Cael