The Video

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Thank You, NICU

One pro about NICU - it can teach a baby to sleep through anything. The con - that anything could be daytime!!!! We're still trying to get his days & nights straightened out. Slowly but surely we'll get there.

We'll be keeping that apnea monitor a while after all. He's still having his bradys. He had one last night that actually scared me. And those of you that know me, know I don't startle too easily. I had to pick him up and really get after him to make him breathe again - good grief!!

This poor child has got more gas than a jet propulsion laboratory. We are constantly giving him gas drops and burping him. He'll start screaming and about 10-15 seconds later (sometimes longer) you'll hear him expel his gas and then he's fine. I feel really bad for him.

Little Man is still thoroughly enjoying this situation. When Peanut cries - he still laughs. He also can become a one man show for Peanut's entertainment which is pretty funny. Although admittedly we have to keep a close eye on Little Man to make sure there aren't any "accidents."

There is a cute video I'm going to post, but for some stupid oddball reason it's not working in here...I'll just make it the next post.


Little Man loves to lay next to Peanut when he's in the floor and he LOVES to flash me his cheesy grin. I can't seem to get enough of this. What cuties.

I take Peanut for his first doctor's visit this morning. It should be interesting to see how much he's gained since coming home. You know I'll keep you posted. ;)

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We took Peanut to the doctor today and he weighed 7lbs 14ozs...chunky monkey, lol. He's doing really well. She's putting him back on the zantac and prescribed a little stronger anti-gas medication. We're hoping it will help him sleep since he gets especially unhappy once he's laying flat (which makes night time not so much fun.)

Two Handsome Fellas

I don't know if anyone is still reading this but we will continue to use the blog. Especially since everyone knows it's here now.
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Dare I say it? Perhaps Peanut just needed a change in scenery to make things calm down. He hasn't had a Brady since Saturday afternoon! WOOHOO!!!!

He sleeps every bit as much as a newborn (as he should since he's only 37 weeks gestation). So here is a rare picture with his eyes open. He's so cute.

He's still doing great and eating like a champ. Little Man is hilarious...he laughs when Peanut cries and then goes, "Uh-Oh Baby." It's SO funny! He also takes pacifiers to him when he cries and that's really cute. We think he's now calling him baby brother by saying, "baby buh-buh". That would be great if he is since that would be putting two words together FINALLY!!!!

After 3 months of mayhem we think we FINALLY got Little Man straight on the usage of a spoon. Yes, this skill has come extremely late for Little Man but as you can imagine - it all resorts back to the feeding issues. We didn't want him independent enough where he would insist on doing it himself and then not eat. Now with things calming down and him being able to eat 99% of what we do, it's a whole new ball game. Here he is for the first time, eating his yogurt on his own with zero assistance. Go Little Man!

More info

Yes, Peanut is home on the apnea monitor. It's not really a big deal and thankfully for us, he doesn't set it off a lot. However, I know a couple of you have asked about it, how big it is and all sorts of stuff.

So he wears this 'nifty' contraption that is foam and goes around his chest and the two (large) plastic leads are attached with velcro. You can see the black & white wires here.

Here he is all bundled up for his first night at home with us, see the wires hanging out between his legs? LOL.

And here is the monitor. It's lightweight and has a shoulder strap so it's not a big deal.

We won't know the bare minimum of how long he'll be on it until we see his pediatrician next week. She will either make that one month or two. We've been told to expect him to have it anywhere from 2-6 months although it could be longer or shorter.

Our first mission is to teach this child the difference between night and day. That is one very bad thing about being in NICU - constant lights.

Oh well, at least he's home and he's doing so well. Little Man is taking it all in stride and has been so gentle. We'll see how long that lasts, lol.

BTW: He was 7lbs 3ozs and was 19 7/8" long when he was discharged. Right at 2 lbs in one month...NOT BAD!

Released from Captivity

YAY! Peanut is home!!! It all happened pretty quick really. We spent last night rooming in with Peanut so that we would have a better grip on the apnea monitor. Thankfully he only set it off twice. That thing is loud!

Little Man met his brother for the first time today and that went really well. He even wanted to hold him so we let him. Got lots of great pictures. You can find more in the online photo album.

I'll take some pics of the apnea monitor tonight to satisfy the curiosity. We assume he'll be on this thing from anywhere from 2 to 6 months. Okay I've got the basics posted here so I'm off to cuddle with the boys. TTFN! :)

His sentence is almost over!

As of last night Peanut weighs 7lbs 1oz. We were supposed to get the results from the sleep study today and for a while we weren't sure we were going to have them. I heard the nurse practitioner on the phone (to the person with the results) saying, "If we don't get these results today this baby is going to have to stay here until Tuesday." ARGH! We can't have that!!

So we finally have the results. He is having apnea. We thought all along that he was only having bradycardia, but he's having both. Anyhow, it also shows that he is refluxing (no surprise - it just means he is going to go home on the meds he's already on). Here's the scary part to me: in six hours he had 32 desats but because his overall average oxygen was okay he doesn't need to go home on oxygen. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly fine with not having more hardware to lug around but that seems like a lot of time without oxygen. The longest he went without the oxygen was 11 seconds - and that also is apparently not bad. Afterall, how long can you hold your breath?

So now we are tying up loose ends as one might say. They have ordered the apnea monitor because Hubby & I both have to learn how to use that. In fact if they get it up here by tonight we'll be spending the night up here with him. That's also a requirement - they want us to spend one night in their special rooming-in room (whatever they call it) to make sure we know what to do with the apnea monitor. He still needs to do his car seat challenge. That's where they stick him in the car seat for about an hour and make sure he doesn't start any funny business (that's what I call his brady's and desats). They also need to do the hearing screen.

I am SO excited and I really hope they can get that monitor here today so we can have him home tomorrow. After all, he's 4 weeks old today and on Sunday he'll be a month old. WOW! I can't believe it! It's also perfect timing since Hubby has a short work week coming up.

It's been one month...

...since I went into labor. It's hard to believe we've been hanging around that hospital for that long now. Hopefully the end is in sight...

They did the sleep study! YAY! One step closer to coming home! It can take up to 48 hours to get the results but at least the test was done before the weekend! The sleep study is where they stick the pH probe into his esophagus so that they can find out how much acid is coming back up. The results should be interesting since he's on both Reglan & Zantac now. He's still having the brady's even on the meds so who knows where this is going. Oh wait...we know where it's going, it's going to mean taking him home with an apnea monitor & possibly oxygen at least for feeds. Oh well, at least we'll have him home! :)

Hopefully they'll get the results and he'll be able to come home this weekend. We're not getting our hopes up though. Well maybe we are.

Little Cutie

I finally have pictures of Peanut without his feeding tube. I cannot believe we didn't have the camera on us yesterday.

We just made our nightly phone call and he weighs 6lbs 13ozs. The nurse said he'd gotten fussy so they put him in the swing and he was enjoying the heck out of that. I must admit, it makes me a bit sad that I wasn't there for his first ride, lol. They figure he's just bored and discontent because he's getting older. Shoot, who can blame him? He's been laying in the exact same place for almost 4 weeks...I'd be bored too!! :)

It appears the zantac is working as he went almost 24 hours without a Brady.

Really nothing else to report tonight. He was wearing the cutest cap today when I went back to see him. I have no idea where it came from but it's cute. It's red, white & blue stripes with the American flag on it (we assume for Memorial Day). When I opened his drawer today there was also the cutest little bib and booties in there. So cute. Enjoy the pics!

Buh-Bye Feeding Tube

As of today, the feeding tube is gone! He's doing much better with the feedings and weighs 6lbs 10ozs. Next week they will be doing a special test to find out how bad his reflux is. They'll be putting a probe down into his esophagus (smaller than his feeding tube) and they will leave it there for 6-8 hours. This will let them know if he'll need to come home on any combination of apnea monitor, oxygen and/or medication. The reason for waiting is that he needs to be considered term (37 weeks) before they can do the test and send him home with these problems. They increased his reflux medication today on top of starting him on a new one.

He's spending more and more time awake which makes it that much harder to leave him every time. He's getting better with his head control and he's really looking around at everything now too. So cute!!

36 weeks today

That's right, even though Peanut is now 3 weeks old he's only 36 weeks gestation today. Still almost a month until his due date.

I have to say that we are both pleased at the progress he's made although we were both convinced early on that we'd have him home by now. He's doing pretty well with his bottle feeds even though it's exhausting for him. We have determined that until he grows out of the reflux he won't be having anymore breast milk though. After having very few bradys during the past 24 hours with nothing but formula he got a bottle with breast milk this afternoon. He had 2 brady's in the first 5 minutes. After that we just switched it to a bottle of formula.

Unfortunately the nurse he had today had never been his nurse before and thought we were nuts when we explained what was going on. Then when he had the first two bradys she was like, "would you mind if I try?" Even though she paced him, his heart rate dropped. She was stunned.

FANTASTIC NEWS: His echo came back normal!!! Neither of us were really concerned that it wouldn't but it still sucked to wait. Thankfully we didn't have to wait until Monday after all.

Hopefully some time next weekend they will be able to do the sleep study so that he can finally come home.

All Bottles

Tonight Peanut still weighs 6lbs 9ozs. He is also now getting all bottle feeds and we'll see how he does with it. We're hoping he'll continue to thrive and do well with the bottles so he can loose the feeding tube.

Speaking of feeding - I'm pretty sure I mentioned somewhere that Peanut has severe reflux and medication and rice cereal in the milk didn't appear to be enough. An update on this situation is a bit interesting. We're doing an experiment now that for the next 24 hours he is only getting the formula (Enfamil AR which is added rice). His trend is to not brady very often at all when he's on the formula. However, when he's having breast milk (even after doubling the amount of rice cereal in it) he has a really hard time keeping it down and he brady's several times in one feeding and even in between feedings. We'll see how that goes.

As for that heart murmur they found; we probably won't have any answers until Monday. They did finally get around to getting the echo done at 2 this afternoon but it's a Friday which means since it's not an emergency it's not likely that anyone is going to lay their eyes on it until Monday. Neither of us are concerned about it at this point but it downright stinks to have to wait so long to confirm that it's no big deal.

Tonight's picture: A comparison of the boys.

They are within a couple days of the same gestation, which is why I've waited to do this. The shapes of their head are different but part of that is probably delivery (at this age) and you can't see it since Peanut is wearing a hat.

Awww...they're both so cute!

I've had better days

I had a bad day today, although some poor parents had it far worse than us. There was a very sick baby in NICU today that had to be taken to a level III NICU in the medical center. Unfortunately that meant the parents of the other 7 babies back there weren't able to see their babies ALL DAY. (usually we only have to wait 10-30 minutes.)

Let's just say I was less than thrilled that it took them over 2 hours to let us know that it was going to be another 4 hours before we could see Peanut. All told we wasted 7 hours so that we could finally see him. All of this when they knew what time we were going to be there and they have our phone #'s right there; we live 45 minutes away.

You have to understand that one of the reasons this is so frustrating for us (besides the fact that we're exhausted and have been running this schedule for 3 weeks now) but the doctor dictates how many times he can be held, seen, fed etc. So by making us wait literally all day it meant we only got to hold him once. We're just so beyond ready to have him home and for now it seems everything is just a waiting game. It also meant that Little Man was up an hour and a half after his bedtime. We're going to pay dearly for that tomorrow although it was worth it to make sure that Peanut was held and fed at least once today.

Then when we get back there, the nurse asked if we'd talked to the nurse practitioner for an update today to which I gave a sarcastic giggle. Turns out they heard a murmur today and will be doing the test in the morning to make sure it's just the typical preemie murmur. Without getting into details it's not uncommon for preemies to have a murmur and they know why it happens, they just have to confirm that's what is causing it.

NICU was a hoppin' by 8:05 tonight. All but one set of parents were in there visiting their babies since nobody had been allowed in all day.

One other interesting note: Peanut is 35weeks 5days today which is the gestation Little Man was when he was born.

So here are a couple of pictures of him in his open crib.

He weighed 6lbs 9ozs tonight and that is a newborn onesie he's swimming in there.

Raisin' the Roof!

It's official, Peanut is in an open crib! While we were in for Peanut's 2pm feeding the doctor ordered the roof on the isolette to be raised! This means he is doing a good job of regulating his own temperature. Hopefully he will continue this so that the roof never goes back down. Here is what is likely his very last picture of being in the isolette with the roof down.

Tomorrow there will be pictures of him in the open crib but we didn't have the camera on us when they raised it.

One other huge milestone today: Peanut made his first attempt at the breast and it's not surprising that nothing happened. As much as I want this to work, I'm not convinced he's ever going to latch onto anything other than a bottle. He's almost 3 weeks old and it is so much work for him just to use a bottle; and bottles are easier. But of course we will continue trying. I am thankful they are at least letting us try because they don't usually let you until they are on all bottle feeds and the feeding tube is gone. And Peanut isn't there yet.

Here are a few other pictures from today.

We say he is getting huge. (6lbs 6ozs now & the lowest he got to was 4lbs 15ozs) However, that is still a preemie onesie he's wearing.

One last picture. It's amazing to us how old Little Man looks now. I wonder if he'll still be smiling once the pictures of his little brother come to life? hehehe! In case you're wondering, Little Man still hasn't met or even seen Peanut (except in pictures). He is too young to go into NICU.

More Bottle Feedings

Today they started using a slower flow nipple for Peanut's feeds and they have increased his feeds back up to bottle, bottle, tube. As of our 11:30pm phone call he weighs 6lbs 6ozs and he didn't have any bradys for the last two bottle feeds! He also finished the bottles in a reasonable time.

Dare we say perhaps adding the rice cereal and slower nipples is working? If he continues to have the bradys he'll end up coming home on an apnea monitor. Once he gets to 37 weeks gestation (he's 35weeks 3 days today) then he'll be able to have the sleep test done and come home on the monitor.

The belief is that his brady episodes are caused by his reflux and not just having an immature brain. The hope is that by correcting the reflux it will make the bradys stop. (At this point that's being attempted by medication & adding rice to his bottles to thicken it up and using slower flow nipples that makes him pace himself.)

Our hope is that by adding the rice he will finally be feeling better and quit having the bradys so he won't have to come home on a monitor. Then maybe he'll be home before 37 weeks.

His next issue is feeding. He's got to be completely off the feeding tube to come home. At least that is headed back in the right direction since they were able to increase the feedings again. Hopefully he'll continue to do well with that.

His isolette is again back at the lowest setting and hopefully he'll do better at maintaining his temp this time around.

He is just the cutest little thing. I did have the realization today that we won't be bringing home a newborn and words can't beging to tell you how disappointed and robbed I feel about that (and losing 2 months of being pregnant - believe it or not.) Although at the same time, we're really just happy we'll be taking home a healthy baby.

A Busy Day

Today was a busy day in NICU for us.

Peanut's isolette had to have the temp turned back up just a tad today. Apparently he's not quite ready to regulate his own temperature.

Because he's still having the bradys they had to do an ultrasound of his head to make sure nothing was going on up there to cause it but thankfully all of that came back as normal.

They have now also started adding rice cereal to the breast milk and the formula he's supplemented with already has rice starch added. This is in an effort to try to keep the milk down and help with his reflux. By making it thicker and a bit heavier we're hoping it will stay down. The hope is that by making his reflux better he will quit having brady episodes. He just really struggles with coordinating breathing with eating. It appears that by cutting back his bottle feedings it's helping him to at least figure out the bottle a little better.

As far as the rice cereal goes, I'm really really hoping this works. If not it's going to mean more testing to get more answers. He's already on an oral medication but that just isn't enough at this point. Adding rice cereal did not work with Little Man, but I'm really hoping it will be enough for Peanut.

He weighs 6lbs 3ozs and they are no longer fortifying my milk. YAY!

I feel like I'm forgetting something here tonight but who knows. If I did, I'll come back and update it. Until then, enjoy the pictures of Peanut in his real clothes. He's just soooo cute!

The Onesie

So much for that extra ounce. He lost just a very small amount of weight but it was enough to make it drop back down to 6lbs 1oz. It's also not horribly surprising since he's been working so hard at the bottle.

His isolette is also now at the lowest temperature so he's having to regulate his own temperature as well. They aren't concerned with opening the isolette just yet though since it's a non-issue (meaning that's not what's keeping him in the hospital).

Of all days to not take my camera back into the NICU with me. I cannot believe I forgot! We both forgot. Anyhow, he's now wearing regular clothes. He's so cute in his little onesie and socks. I'll get pictures tomorrow!

35 weeks

NOTICE SOMETHING MISSING?!?! Yeah. Don't get too excited just yet. He yanked out his feeding tube today so I was able to snag a couple of pictures before they put it back in.

Turns out a small part of me is actually glad he pulled it out so that they were able to put it on the other side. His skin was really starting to be irritated by the tape.

The good news is that Peanut has found another ounce and he weighs 6lbs 2ozs. The not so good news is that they are having to reduce the number of bottle feeds because he's just not ready. So now he's getting every other feed as a bottle and then every other as a tube feeding.

He just wasn't handling the bottle as well as he needs to be. It's so much work for him and he was having a lot of trouble coordinating the breathing with the eating. We think this will be for the better for him and once he's got a better grip on bottle feeding they will up it again.

He is just 35 weeks today so our expectations are only so high anyway. He'll eventually get it but you can do more long term damage by trying to force it on him so we have to go at his pace.

They keep telling us that the feeding is often times like someone hit a switch and they'll just all of a sudden get it and take off. Let's hope his light bulb goes off very soon and that he quits having Bradys so that he can come home SOON.

I have to tell you this is especially hard because Little Man was born at 35w 5d and he came home from the hospital with me. Although in hindsight, he probably shouldn't have.

And just in case I don't get around to it, I want to wish all you moms a very Happy Mother's Day for tomorrow. We haven't gotten any cards out this year because things have been nuts. We're doing good to keep basic groceries in the house for Little Man right now, lol.

Six Pounds!!!!

Peanut went from 5lbs 13ozs last night to 6lbs 1oz tonight. The nurse said she weighed him twice, lol. Unfortunately he's still having the brady's. The good news is that it will only keep him in the hospital for so long. Once he's closer to term, say 36-37 weeks, if that is the only thing keeping him there they will be able to send him home with a monitor.

Of course, we'd prefer to have him home sooner and with no monitor so we're keeping our fingers crossed and continuing to say our prayers for him.

His bottle feeds were increased this afternoon so he's now getting 2 bottle feeds in a row followed by a tube feed. I have a feeling he's going to do fine with that. I can't wait to see his precious face with no tubes!

More pictures!! We actually got pictures of him with his eyes open today!!!

ISN'T HE CUTE?!?!?!?! (& tiny, lol)

Little Piggy!

Oh my goodness...Peanut is turning out to be quite the little piggy! We made our regular bedtime NICU phone call to check on him and he weighs 5lbs 11 ozs!!!!! His nurse also said he took his entire 8pm bottle feeding in only 8 minutes!!

I fed him his 2pm bottle and he struggled with the first half of it and then guzzled the 2nd half. He's doing so well. He has officially gone one full day with no Brady episodes. He's still not completely regulating his own temperature but the isolette is getting a little cooler each day, he's almost down to the lowest it goes.

As of today he is getting every other feed from a bottle! Once he's taking those just fine he will be upped to 2 bottles, 1 tube feed, etc.

YAY!

Day Ten

It's already been ten days since Peanut came into this world and the good news is that he's doing as well as we could hope for. He actually took his entire 45cc feeding from me in a bottle today. It's the first feeding he's ever finished by bottle and it almost brought me to tears. I was so proud of him.

He's still having the Brady episodes but he is almost always recovering from them on his own and his heartrate isn't dropping as low as it used to. He's still not down to the lowest temperature setting on the isolette which simply means he's not completely regulating his own temp just yet. All in time though, all in good time.

Today was Hubby's first day back at work in probably 2 weeks with everything going on. He's working the mornings in his office and then from his laptop and blackberry in the afternoons. We feel so blessed that his bosses have been so flexible and understanding.

Now for the picture!

I just love this picture of Peanut's hand laying in his daddy's hand.

The IV is gone!

Where to start?

First of all, I was wrong about the bottle feeds. He wasn't being fed every shift, but once a day. However, as of today it really is once per shift. He had his IV fluids removed today and after showing he could handle the bigger feed they have now completely removed his IV. We can't wait to get in there tomorrow and see his whole head without a tube hanging out of it! As for bottle feeds, he is slowly getting the point. He got almost half of his 5pm feed by bottle tonight. We're allowed to feed him the bottle for 30 min but after that it gets to the point that they are burning more calories than it's worth and the rest is fed through his feeding tube. We'll be so happy when that disappears.

He weighs 5lbs 6ozs. He is still having the Brady episodes and he must go 5 days without any before they can send him home. I did finally get an answer from the doctor today. My question was "Is there an average age at which they grow out of this?" The answer is 35-36 weeks and Peanut is 34 weeks today. Hopefully by the end of next week we'll be able to start the countdown. The good news is that he is recovering on his own more often than not now and they don't seem to be quite as often.

Today was the Heritage Gathering and the one thing we really wanted to make sure we did was take Little Man to ride a pony. We just knew he was going to like it and like it he did. He didn't want to leave. Bless his little heart.

And now about yesterday:

Yesterday was my birthday and I was sad because I wasn't able to celebrate it with both of my boys together. However, when I went in to see Peanut the nurses left me a surprise which brought me straight to tears.

I also found a sleeping angel :)

Here's a picture of Little Man from my birthday dinner. :)

And last but not least, Peanut finally has his name hanging on his isolette (incubator) and it's so cute!

Better Bottle Attempt

They are attempting a bottle feed once per shift (twice in a 24 hour period) and today I got to be around for the day shift attempt. He did SO much better than yesterday. He opened his mouth for the bottle and even tried to suck from it a couple of times. He didn't get anything out of it when he sucked but it's awesome that he tried.

He is back up to his birth weight (5lbs 4ozs). We're really hoping that in the next 24ish hours he'll be able to lose the IV. He's tolerating his feedings well and as they increase the feedings, they decrease the IV nutrition.

I realize this is redundant but just have to say, "WE CANNOT WAIT UNTIL HE CAN COME HOME!"