too tired to come up with a creative title...

Life is so rough at Club NICU




It was a good day. Duncan ate pretty well at his 9 am feeding. Aaron & I went home after that because we had an appointment with his occupational therapist at 2:45 and needed to rest. He ate about 15 ml from the bottle at his noon feeding. A very good start.

Because he expended so much energy on those 2 feedings, he was totally wiped out for the occupational therapist & his 3 o'clock feeding. Which actually worked out because Jo (the occupational therapist) was able to show us what was best to do when he's wiped out. She also explained that he can't be treated like a "normal" baby. Small, early babies don't have the neck muscles a full-term baby does. We were trying to feed him on his back and he kept going into bradycardia (slow heart rate). Trust me. You NEVER want to see your child go into that. I went through it several times when I was still in the hospital so I knew what to do. Poor Aaron didn't. But now we both know that he needs fed on his side. That is so the milk pools in his cheek instead of the back of his throat. Very good to know.

Jo also gave us a plan for what we need to do to help Duncan be the best baby ever. (we already think so but the medical community needs to agree) We'll start working with his arms to his torso & his mouth. We also need to make sure he's awake and wanting to eat. If he doesn't we need to let him sleep so he can continue getting healthier.

Duncan's jaundice levels dropped to 9.3 (down from 10.3 yesterday). He's spending another full day at Club NICU but hopefully he can get off the lights tomorrow.

The poor night nurse discovered last night that he doesn't tolerate formula well. Duncan went through 5 diapers during a change. You can imagine. Or don't. Because trust me. Those are some smelly diapers. He also has reflux so we're trying a new additive to the breast milk. They're thickening it and adding calories so hopefully he can keep it down and grow. Plus I was able to pump more so hopefully there is enough milk for all his feedings.

He grew 3 grams yesterday. That's about 3 small paperclips. But when you're only 4 pounds, 14.1 ounces, 3 grams is a lot!

Aaron & I are holding it together. We never imagined our little guy would be in the NICU, let alone for a week. And more. But we are so blessed that we have wonderful friends & family praying for our little family. Your strength gives us strength so we can keep going to the hospital day after day. Mighty Duncan (as one of his aunties calls him) is a lucky baby. I can't wait for everyone to be able to meet him!

We are also so grateful we have such a wonderful NICU at Sacred Heart here in Spokane. They are 100% family focused and there are only 2 times a day we can't be there (during shift change). We can spend the entire day there if we want/need to. It's very comforting. The nurses are beyond fantastic. They take the time to answer our questions and help us when we have questions. We got to give Duncan a sponge bath and the nurse walked us through it. Granted, it's because he pooped & peed all over so we didn't really have a choice but we did learn from it. I cannot say enough good things about them. They love our little guy and we can tell they do. It makes leaving him there a bit easier. We know without a doubt he's in the best hands.

And now, what everyone really tunes in for...Pictures!!!

Big yawn

Pinkies!
loves