June 14, 2012- We set a new record!

Brandon called the NICU last night and Will's oxygen need had gone down to 0.5 Liters on a regular nasal cannula and he had gained weight!  We were so excited and I couldn't wait to go see him this morning.  We went and saw Will this morning so we could attend rounds and so my mom could say goodbye before she flew back to South Carolina.  We arrived in time for rounds where Will's team of doctors, nurses, dietician, etc all meet.  Dr. King said that we had set a record for how fast Will's oxygen was weaned!  He wanted to keep Will on the 0.5 Liters today so we didn't rush his progress.  He also said that we may be able to take Will home sooner rather than later.  I was so encouraged after rounds, but in my head I know that we could still be looking at going home closer to Will's due date in August.  As my dad said, this is a marathon not a sprint. 

Will's nurse told me that we could do some non nutritive sucking today which means that Will could practice nursing but not receive any breast milk.  What happens is, I go and pump and then we see if Will will latch on and suck, but not receive any milk.  This lets him practice nursing without getting milk.  We practiced this afternoon, and Will sucked a little, but then he fell asleep.  He's a little lazy.  Brandon and I both held him again today and kept him out of his incubator for about 90 minutes again.  He is doing so well staying out of his incubator and keeping his vitals stable. 

Brandon, his parents and I went back to the hospital tonight after dinner.  Brandon and I did Will's cares and then we held him for the second time today.  This is the first time we have taken Will out twice in one day.  Will did pretty well and we held him for about an hour tonight.  Will also gained more weight and weighs 3 pounds 4 ounces.  This equals out to be 1480 grams.  When he weighs 1800 grams or 4 pounds, he can get out of his incubator and move into an open top crib.  Once he is in an open top crib, we can hold him more and other people can hold him!

Brandon and I are so encouraged by Will's progress everyday.  We can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

June 13, 2012- Yard Time

Today, well last night, brought my first disappointment that I had to harness and remember how much progress Will has really made.  Brandon called the NICU last night to see how Will was doing and to see how much weight he had gained.  We found out that he had lost 20 grams and was back down to 3 pounds 2.5 ounces.  Brandon and I were hoping for a nice weight gain since the nurses were fortifying his milk to give him more calories.  So needless to say, I was a little bummed when I went in to the NICU this morning.

When I arrived to the NICU, I was able to speak to the neonatal nurse practitioner and she assured me that the weight loss was okay as long as he has weight gain over the entire week.  She also told me that Will's oxygen had been weaned down to 2.5 Liters high flow nasal cannula and that she wrote an order to wean him further to 2 Liters.  When Will is stable on 2 Liters, he will be able to attempt to try oral feedings!  What an accomplishment!  The weight loss was now out of my mind! 

While we were visiting Will, he stayed on his 2.5 Liters, but the nurse said that she would try and wean him later in the day and tonight.  Will came out of his incubator for his Yard Time during his 3pm feeding.  The past few days, Will has lasted 45 minutes or so and today he lasted about 90 minutes, if not longer!  He had no vital sign changes and he was so content laying on me and then on Brandon.  I was SO proud of him!  All I want to do is snuggle him and kiss him all the time!

 Brandon and I are getting really comfortable doing all of Will's cares without the nurses around, and we are getting much better at diaper changes while he is in the incubator.  We are also getting more comfortable taking Will out of the incubator without the nurses' help.  The nurses are really great at letting us take over when we are there. I am so proud of Brandon and how he has embraced holding Will, moving him in and out of the incubator and even changing his diapers.  Who knew that a 3 pound baby could be so intimidating, but Brandon is not letting it get to him! 

Let's hope for a positive weight gain tonight!

June 12, 2012- What's in a name?

This morning I woke up at 6am (yes, I am waking up every 3 hours and the baby isn't even home yet) and I was thinking about Will's name.  We picked William Ross as his name to honor my grandfather, William and Brandon's father, Ross.  I have been saying since this all started that Will came from strong family genes and that he will be okay, and it didn't occur to me until this morning that his name, William, means strong-willed warrior.  Could his name have anymore meaning?  

My mom and I arrived to the hospital this morning while Brandon worked and we found out that Will's ultrasound was normal and there was no evidence of any cerebral bleeding!  They will repeat the ultrasound on July 5th to make sure that they didn't miss anything in the first test.  Will's weight is up to 3 pounds 3 oz and his oxygen was also down to 3 liters and he was on 21% FiO2.  For those that are not in the medical field, this is a great sign!  The nurse said that his oxygen could be weaned again, but they were holding off since he made such progress yesterday, that they didn't want to rush things today.  I was completely fine with that since I don't want to stress him out and set him back.  Finally, Will is on his maximum amount of milk volume so they are now adding more calories to fatten him up.  He has been tolerating those feeds quite well.  

Brandon and I had an equally exciting day.  The nurse told us that we needed to be the ones who pick up Will and hold him instead of sitting in the chair and waiting for the nurse to put him in our arms.  This was the first time the nurses let us have a little more responsibility with him.  I got him out of the incubator and held him for about 30 minutes and then I transferred him to Brandon who held him for another 30 minutes.  Will is really learning to tolerate his time out of the incubator.  My mom and Brandon call it is "yard time" since he is in prison in his incubator.  I think that's pretty cute!  When Brandon was finished holding him, he stood up and placed him back in his bed without the nurse or me taking over.  I was so proud of him for taking this step.  It's hard to trust yourself with this little tiny baby, but we are slowly getting used to handling him.  It makes me feel more like a mom knowing that I can do the small things to care for him and not have to rely on someone else to hand him to me or move him around for me.  I know it sounds like a small thing, but trust me when I say, that it is HUGE to us.   
Tonight, Will is going to get a Hep B shot and it is killing me that I am not there to comfort him and hold him, but I know that he is well cared for by the awesome nurses at IMC.  I know that Brandon will call tonight to get a weight check and see how he tolerated his shot.  Will will definitely get some Mama love tomorrow!

June 11, 2012- One week old

Monday marked Will's one week birthday!  I woke up and was sitting in my rocking chair that we bought for Will when I looked at the clock and realized that it was 6:40am.  One week prior, Will had arrived and was already in the competent hands of the NICU staff.  I sat in the rocker and reflected on the past week and all of Will's progress.  I laughed at the thought of him always sticking his feet out of his swaddle, how he grabs on to all of his cords, and the funny faces that he makes.  It made me sad to think of him on those first 2 days with his CPAP, the tube in his mouth and that I couldn't hold him.  Then I realized just how far he had come in one week, and that was truly amazing and a miracle.  

We headed over to the hospital in the morning to see Will and we were able to meet with the doctor again.  He wanted to continue to wean his oxygen, turn off the bili lights and stop his IV fluids.  What a plan!  Will was also scheduled for a head ultrasound for the day to make sure he didn't have any bleeding in his head.  We were there for his ultrasound and Will did great.  He didn't have any changes in his vitals or increased oxygen needs while he was being handled by the ultrasound tech.  We left after the ultrasound, and came back later in the day.

When we came back in the afternoon, Will had his IV out and his oxygen was down to 4 Liters!  What a nice change.  The only problem we had was that the ultrasound results had not come back yet.  The suspense was killing us!  However, in the afternoon, Brandon and I were able to hold our sweet baby for over an hour!  Will did great with no changes in his vital signs.  We are slowly learning his cues and when it is time to put him back in his incubator, but those precious moments that we have holding him mean the world to us. 

As I was holding Will, I looked up at Brandon and my mom and told them that I couldn't believe that Will was mine.  How in the world did I create this little perfect baby that just came a little too early?  He is so handsome, so strong just a little small.  How in the world did Brandon and I get so lucky to have this perfect little man?  We are truly blessed!

Thanks to the ultrasound gel, this was not our best hair day!  His awesome night nurse said she would give him a bath.  We will see on Tuesday if we are having a better hair day

June 10, 2012

Sunday brought much of the same.  We went to the hospital early to do Will's cares and we found that he was back under the bili lights so he had to wear his eye mask to protect his little peepers.  I was able to hold Will again, but he didn't seem to like it as much as he did on Friday so Brandon wasn't able to hold him.   The nurses had attempted to wean Will's oxygen down from 5 Liters to 4 Liters, but he didn't like it so he was back to 5 Liters.  It was a little disappointing to find that Will's oxygen need wasn't decreasing, but I had to put it in perspective that he wasn't getting worse.  Plus, I had to realize that Will was doing well with his increased feedings and putting some meat on his little tiny bones.  The doctors were also going to stop ordering the nutrition that was going through Will's IV.  This was a big baby step! 

Later on Sunday night, Brandon called the NICU to see how Will was doing and his night nurse gave us some great news, Will had surpassed his birth weight!  He now weighed 3 pounds 2 ounces, he has grown a centimeter and his head had grown by 1/2 centimeter!  He was finally showing that he was growing big and strong!  The nurse also told us that she was able to wean Will's oxygen down to 4.5 Liters of high flow.  PROGRESS!!!!

June 9, 2012

Saturday brought the scariest moment of our journey.  Brandon and I were dead asleep at 3am when Brandon's cell phone rang.  When he looked at his phone, the number was blocked and when he went to answer it, there was dead air.  Our first thought was that Will's nurse was calling us from the NICU and we missed the call.  Brandon immediately called the NICU and was able to talk to our nurse, and she said that Will was doing fantastic and tolerating his oxygen and feedings.  Now we had to try and go back to sleep, like that happened right away!

Saturday also brought in my parents from South Carolina.  They were able to meet Will, but like everyone else, they couldn't hold him or touch him.  Brandon and I met with the neonatologist for the first time and he told us that we had a feisty baby.  He said that Will was a strong baby and that he would do well.  He said Will's plan was to concentrate on increasing his feeds and then we would concentrate on weaning his oxygen.  Not a lot of information for us, but we were encouraged by the doctor's positive attitude.  It was so nice to hear that the doctors and nurses were so optimistic about Will's recovery and outcome.

Will was also baptized on Saturday night by Deacon Dale from St John the Baptist parish in Draper.  It meant so much to Brandon and I to have him baptized while in the hospital.  He will have another baptism with his Godparents and the rest of the family when he is big, strong and home.  

June 8, 2012

While Friday didn't bring many changes to Will's plan of care, Brandon and I could definitely see improvements.  The nurse practitioner told us that they were slowly increasing the amount of milk Will was receiving during each feed and that he was tolerating them well.  She said that his respiratory status was still in a holding pattern because we weren't able to wean his oxygen down.  She explained that white baby boys were a little wimpy and that it takes them more time to come off oxygen when they are preemies.  She also said that he would be okay since I had received steroids to help mature the baby's lungs and that the steroids had 4 days to work before I delivered him. 

Friday marked the day that Brandon was able to hold Will for the first time.  It was an amazing site to see my husband holding our son.  It's amazing that such a small thing that we take for granted can mean so much when we can't do it everyday.  Will tolerated being held really well and we were able to hold him for about 45 minutes!!!  Brandon and I were on cloud nine for the rest of the day!!!  Everyday that we went to the NICU, we were encouraged with Will's progress even when the progress wasn't measurable by being able to wean the oxygen.  Everyday, we could see that Will was getting stronger.  He he was able to focus his eyes on us, hold on to his tubes and even hold on to our fingers.  As I have said previously, these are all small things, but they mean the world to us!