The Numbers Are In!

Total cost for a 29 day NICU stay...$55K. That doesn't include any doctors charges, tests, etc. That is strictly to stay there. Although I'm pretty sure without looking over the details it does include his medications. All told this little adventure was well over $100K. Thank goodness for insurance! :)

Speaking of Peanut he's going to have an upper GI done on Friday. That doesn't particularly make either of us happy but his reflux is getting worse...not better. Little Man had one done and we felt so bad for him strapped to the board. Hopefully Peanut will just think he's being swaddled since he's so young.

I went ahead and attempted to take some pictures today. I can always upload it/them to multiple sites and buy a package instead of driving all the way to BFE to have pics done & then again to pick them up.

After I took some pictures of Peanut I remembered I had matching tops for the boys and figured I should go ahead and take pictures of them while I had things set up. I've been learning a program and tweaked a few of them with that. You'll have to let me know what you think of my first attempts here.

Here is his "official" 2 month picture...if you want to call it that.

And a few more:

It was really funny because Little Man is a bit funny about Peanut being ON him. He really doesn't know what to think of it and doesn't really like Peanut touching him. There was no way he was going to be able to hold Peanut up.

I'll be uploading these to the online photo album today or tomorrow (my head hurts) so that you can save them if you like. These are very low quality for the sake of posting them here.

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.

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!"

Bottle Feeding: Take 1

Today was eventful. I got to spend a lot of time with him. I also got to spend some time during one of his feedings skin on skin. Apparently the technical term is "Kangaroo Care". This is so that he will begin to associate his full tummy with me and my smell, etc. It's also just a great way to bond - to keep him warm.

They attempted his first bottle feed today and that didn't go very well. He doesn't have the suck/swallow reflex yet and so he had a little more than he knew what to do with. After that he remained tight lipped and didn't let the nipple back in, lol.

They've also upped his feedings to 30cc's. The first time they fed him that much he didn't do to well with it and had a lot left over. However, the 2nd time the amount left in his stomach afterwards was just about half and that is definitely good news.

They are hoping in the next day or two they will be able to remove his IV which is there now just to provide nutrition. As they increase the feedings into his stomach they are able to lower the amount of IV nutrition he needs/gets.

A few other pictures from today:

Good Day

Great news for today. Peanut is back up to 5lbs 3ozs and he's tolerating his feedings well. This means that the medication for the reflux is working and he's not having much of anything left in his stomach after he eats. They have now upped his feeding amount to 20cc's (it was 5 at first). They are also going to switch the reflux medication from IV to straight into his tummy.

I (mom) was extremely excited today because I got to hold him for a feeding. I actually got to hold him twice today which made me very happy.

His bilirubin has gone down so he's no longer under the bililights and as long as it stays down we'll call that one issue down. He's having fewer brady epidsodes and the last 2 that he had he recovered from completely on his own.

Hopefully he'll continue to do so well so that he can come home soon. (Although we're not sure when they are going to attempt bottle feeding and that is an obvious "must" first.

Baby Update #1

Peanut was born on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 8:57 am via c-section. He weighed 5lbs 4ozs and was 17" long. He has beautiful blue eyes and a head full of very blonde hair.

Peanut's issue is that he was born at only 32weeks 6days gestation so he is in NICU.

He does seem to be doing well but has started to develop the "typical" preemie issues one would expect to find at this gestation. He is being tube fed and does have reflux. This causes bradycardia (shallow breathing or forgetting to breathe) which is common for this age. They have started to give him medication for the reflux in hopes that it will help with the episodes as well as get him to start gaining weight.

He has two IVs right now, one in his head and the other in his foot. He is getting all of his nutrition through these two spots. They have two because they don't want to 'blow' either one. So when one looks like it's getting stressed they use the other IV site

As of this morning (Mon April 28) his bilirubin is also up so they are going to be putting him under the lights for the jaundice today. Unfortunately he has lost some weight and as of this morning he weighs 4lbs 15ozs

There is some good news. You should see this kid suck a pacifier! We can't believe he can keep that soothie in his mouth like that! So the hope is that since he's so good with the pacifier that he will take off once it's time to start feeding him with a bottle. The other "good" thing if you want to call it that is that these are the typical issues one would expect for a 32-33 weeker. We're not dealing with any life threatening complications and everything that is "wrong" is going to get better with time and hopefully a little quicker with medical intervention.

Last we heard they were planning on starting the bottle feeds closer to 34 weeks. We've been told that the suck/swallow reflex doesn't typically develop until then and if they try sooner, even if he can do it, it would likely mean he'd be working harder for his food and that could make his volume drop which could mean weight loss. So hopefully by the end of the week they'll be able to start trying bottle feeds so he can get rid of the feeding tube.

We're sad that Little Man can't meet his baby brother until he comes home but we also completely understand the policies for NICU. I'm being discharged this morning and it's completely bittersweet. We absolutely hate leaving Peanut behind but we know he's in great hands. At least Little Man can finally have his mommy back after 2 months of bed rest and complications.

We also have other great news about Little Man -- he's eating!! He's actually taking real bites from food and chewing them. Oh words can't begin to explain how happy we are about that!

BTW: We'll be keeping all of the pictures updated online so email me if you need the link.

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for our family and if you have any questions for us, please don't hesitate to ask!