6 Days Old

Today was all around a great day! Nicholas is beginning to breastfeed…or at least try. I give him a lot of credit for trying. There’s still a ways to go for him to be completely dependent on me for feeding, but we are spending a good 4 mins for every 15 mins feeding well. He is up to getting about 20mL of breast milk at a feeding and is still being fed through the tube in his nose. This tube goes through the back of his throat and into his tummy. So he gets a full tummy but is not having to use bottles yet. His weight as of today was 3lbs 11oz. I am not sure how low his weight got, but he started out at 3lbs 13oz and dropped in the first few days. By Day 4 he was 3lbs 8oz, and Day 6 he was 3lbs 11oz. Once he continues to put on weight he will be taken off the lipids and vitamin supplement and be getting all of his nutrition through the breast milk. He will still have to have a calorie increasing supplement that can be added to the breast milk because he is premature and needs the additional calories to quickly get up to full term weight. So weight increase is one step towards getting off the tubes and wires and into an open air crib. Nicholas’s heart rate is doing very well. They want his heart rate to stay in the 140s and 150s. It tends to go up to the 180s and 190s at times and then, when they are this young, their heart rate can drop below even 100 which isn’t good either. They can forget to breathe and this is what happens to Nicholas once in a while so we are hoping that he can maintain a good heart rate throughout. Regulation of body temperature is also a major hurdle to overcome. One of the major reasons he is in an isolette is because he can’t maintain the necessary body temperature between 36.5 and 37.5 degrees Celsius. While in the isolette he did have some trouble with his temperature being too low so they had to hold back on him being held and even getting a bath. As of this evening he is doing better and will be getting a bath during the night. The nurses are estimating that Nicholas will be off his venous line (feeding him the lipids, vitamins, and fluids) by Saturday if he keep doing well with the feedings. He is tolerating his food very well and is having at least two bowel movements a day…what fun that is to clean up on such a tiny little bum. The Occupations Therapists (OTs) and nurses have started giving me some things to do with him in order to learn how to take care of Nicholas on my own. Having a premature baby is a whole new ball game in the mothering (and fathering) department. I am changing his diapers, taking his temperature, turning him over as needed, and starting a program to help his bones and muscles develop comfortably and properly. For example, changing Nicholas’s diaper is different than changing a full term babies diaper. You can’t just pick up his bottom by pulling up his legs. I have to ensure that his legs go into the fetal position by placing my hands on the bottoms of his feet and slowing guiding his feet and legs back. Then I have to hold his feet with the palm of my hand and get my four fingers under his bottom to lift it all up together and place the new diaper underneath. All of this while also working around the wires and tubes. That’s just an example of how different it is to do even the every day things with a premature baby. Anyways, this is probably enough for a daily entry. Each day is full of learning new things and watching our little boy get closer and closer to being brought home. Please pray for continued weight gain and self-regulation of his temperature and heart rate. Thank you all so much!! Until tomorrow…..