Things are coming together at home and I can't wait to get back there and enjoy this sweet and cozy room with my little man.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Nursery sneak peak
It's got a ways to go, but we're so grateful for our family's help today at our home in putting things together. Aunt Caitlin and Marcus whipped together the crib and my Dad installed a second outlet in the room, among a list of other jobs, so I can plug in all kinds of things. My mom did a whirlwind cleaning of our house, thank goodness. And they did it all while likely being thoroughly annoyed by our poor cats who have been either ignored or tortured by the neighbor kids for too long. What a feat!
Things are coming together at home and I can't wait to get back there and enjoy this sweet and cozy room with my little man.
Things are coming together at home and I can't wait to get back there and enjoy this sweet and cozy room with my little man.
Portz or Hoge?
He's definitely changing every day so I'm excited to see what changes come. I may be biased, but I think he's pretty cute.
James' first bottle feeding
Friday, July 25. We were surprised and excited when our nurse told us we could try bottle feeding. This seemed like such a huge step in the right direction and we were confident he would do well as the nurses had all been complimenting James on how well he took to sucking on his pacifier. He's a champ, what can we say (proud momma here!).
Daddy got to do the work as I felt I'll have plenty of feeding opportunities and he did a great job. The nurse talked him through it but I think he's a natural.
James is being fed 32 ml per feeding and he took 5 ml from the bottle during this attempt. Seems like a little but the nurse was very pleased as this is hard work and required lots of coordination and energy from the little guy. His second bottle feeding was today, July 27 and he took 10 ml in 1/3 the time! Yay team James!
Daddy got to do the work as I felt I'll have plenty of feeding opportunities and he did a great job. The nurse talked him through it but I think he's a natural.
James is being fed 32 ml per feeding and he took 5 ml from the bottle during this attempt. Seems like a little but the nurse was very pleased as this is hard work and required lots of coordination and energy from the little guy. His second bottle feeding was today, July 27 and he took 10 ml in 1/3 the time! Yay team James!
Thursday, July 24, 2014
NICU tour - Aspirus Wausau Hospital
This will be quite out of order but thought I'd write a happy post about our home-away-from-home in the hospital here in Wausau. It's a happy post because we are so pleased with the care here, and for a crappy situation we couldn't have ended up in a better spot with family being close by and the general peace that comes along with being in a smaller, quieter area of the world (Chicago and it's craziness and home with pets can be stressful!).
First off, James has a private room which we've learned is quite rare and has lots of benefits, mainly the privacy offered for pumping and the peace and quiet compared to being in a room with other babies and families. When researching a possible transfer back to the Chicago area, we found that most hospitals have shared rooms; most newer NICUs like ours and all being built are going to private rooms.
Grandma and baby J. Usually the room is darker but I turned up the lights for some photo ops. The blankey and all clothes he has been wearing belong to the hospital; their theory is that he'll mess things up and then they'll wash it and we won't have to worry about or ruin our things.
If we wanted to stay overnight with James (which we haven't yet), the couch turns into a bed which Adam found quite comfy in my room. Not even sure what our view is, the blinds stay closed.
The 'Family Great Room' or waiting area. If we want to eat or have visitors who aren't allowed in or are waiting for a turn to visit, this is where we hang.
First off, James has a private room which we've learned is quite rare and has lots of benefits, mainly the privacy offered for pumping and the peace and quiet compared to being in a room with other babies and families. When researching a possible transfer back to the Chicago area, we found that most hospitals have shared rooms; most newer NICUs like ours and all being built are going to private rooms.
The staff here gets a kick out of Daddy's job and the fact that our family is torn between Packer fans and Bears fans; looks like the volunteer who made our new door sign sided with the Bears.
Entrance to the NICU; every day there have been landscapers adding more flowers and things. It's really a very pretty walk in and out every day. Lots of toads at night and duckies during the day!
Nice view of Rib Mountain from the Great Room area.
James update - Ten days old
Thursday, July 24: Today marks what would have been 33 weeks in my belly. I'm still getting the emails about what size fruit he would be (durian fruit) so I should probably unsubscribe from those soon.
The update from the nurse practitioner today was great. To quote, "respiratory wise he's doing spectacular." Any use of the word spectacular is pretty great in my mind. He's now totally breathing on his own with the vapotherm machine having been removed on Tuesday morning. This was just giving him some added pressure to help keep his lungs open, otherwise he was breathing room air and had been since last Tuesday. Two big thumbs up!
He was having some episodes of bradycardia (slowed heart rate) and was started on a caffeine drip on Monday (I think, the days blur together..). The theory is that the caffeine helps 'wake him up' and keeps his heart rate up. I call it his Java drip. Good news is that it worked! I haven't heard much from the nurses regarding any drops or increases in his heart rate so we're pleased there.
We got some kind of scary news on Monday regarding his heart. The staff had found a heart murmur early on and we were kept in the loop on it on a daily basis; they thought it was something common and related to being a preemie that would likely close on its own as he grows. However, an echocardiogram on Monday revealed something different. They found a small hole in the area dividing his heart into the two ventricles called VSD or ventricular septal defect. They told us his hole is quite small and that they are not very concerned as this is a common congenital defect that may require a rather routine surgery, likely when he is a toddler, to repair if symptoms appear. He doesn't show any of the symptoms right now and is otherwise doing very well so it's just something to monitor and follow up with as he grows. We were reassured that he may very well just live with the defect throughout his life and be symptom free as many people do who have VSD. Fingers crossed, just scary to here that there is anything wrong with your baby, let alone in his heart.
He still has a PICC line (kind of like a semi-permanent IV access point) in his head as they had difficulty putting it in his arm where they are normally placed. This is where he receives TPN and lipids which serve as added nutrition for the time being or until tonight at 6 pm when they will stop them altogether as he's now getting enough breastmilk. This is through his NG tube (nasogastric tube) which runs through his nose to his tummy and hopefully within the next few days or week at the latest we can actually try feeding him 'normally' through the bottle or via momma. I was told today that I can let him wander towards my breast and he can suck if he wants while holding him which is exciting news and feels like a big step forward. Babies don't normally develop the coordination required for feeding until about 34 weeks so we don't expect too much from him as sucking, swallowing and breathing all at the same time is hard work for a little dude. We're also told that this is the reason that some babies stay in the NICU so long: they've met all their other milestones but can't quite get the coordination down and get as much milk in as they need. So fingers crossed he does well!
James' weight has topped his birth weight of 3 lbs 10.2 oz as he is now 3 lbs 10.8 oz! He dipped down to 3 lbs 4 oz at his lowest but has steadily been gaining which is great to see! We've got a growing boy on our hands. They expect about an ounce a day on average and the minimum weight to go home is 4 lbs.
In the meantime we're just doing kangaroo care as much as possible for bonding and good tummy time on our chests. Kangaroo care is where we take turns holding him in just his diaper while we are bare chested so there's lots of skin to skin contact. He can hear our heartbeats, smell us and just have some good quality connection time.
We're working on diaper changes and experienced one blow out that almost hit momma. Aunt Caitlin, Marcus and I had a good laugh while Daddy just looked on in horror at the mess in his isolette. I didn't know babies could poop with such a force! James also did a fountain pee onto his own face and Grandma's hand giving mom a good laugh. Good times and I'm sure there are lots more of these incidents to come.
Following pictures are from yesterday, July 23.
The following are from July 20-22:
Grandma was lucky enough to be the first to person to hold James other than Mom and Dad. She was in the right place at the right time (I had to get up and go pee) so he got passed off to her and snuggled right up.
Thanks for checking in!
The update from the nurse practitioner today was great. To quote, "respiratory wise he's doing spectacular." Any use of the word spectacular is pretty great in my mind. He's now totally breathing on his own with the vapotherm machine having been removed on Tuesday morning. This was just giving him some added pressure to help keep his lungs open, otherwise he was breathing room air and had been since last Tuesday. Two big thumbs up!
He was having some episodes of bradycardia (slowed heart rate) and was started on a caffeine drip on Monday (I think, the days blur together..). The theory is that the caffeine helps 'wake him up' and keeps his heart rate up. I call it his Java drip. Good news is that it worked! I haven't heard much from the nurses regarding any drops or increases in his heart rate so we're pleased there.
We got some kind of scary news on Monday regarding his heart. The staff had found a heart murmur early on and we were kept in the loop on it on a daily basis; they thought it was something common and related to being a preemie that would likely close on its own as he grows. However, an echocardiogram on Monday revealed something different. They found a small hole in the area dividing his heart into the two ventricles called VSD or ventricular septal defect. They told us his hole is quite small and that they are not very concerned as this is a common congenital defect that may require a rather routine surgery, likely when he is a toddler, to repair if symptoms appear. He doesn't show any of the symptoms right now and is otherwise doing very well so it's just something to monitor and follow up with as he grows. We were reassured that he may very well just live with the defect throughout his life and be symptom free as many people do who have VSD. Fingers crossed, just scary to here that there is anything wrong with your baby, let alone in his heart.
He still has a PICC line (kind of like a semi-permanent IV access point) in his head as they had difficulty putting it in his arm where they are normally placed. This is where he receives TPN and lipids which serve as added nutrition for the time being or until tonight at 6 pm when they will stop them altogether as he's now getting enough breastmilk. This is through his NG tube (nasogastric tube) which runs through his nose to his tummy and hopefully within the next few days or week at the latest we can actually try feeding him 'normally' through the bottle or via momma. I was told today that I can let him wander towards my breast and he can suck if he wants while holding him which is exciting news and feels like a big step forward. Babies don't normally develop the coordination required for feeding until about 34 weeks so we don't expect too much from him as sucking, swallowing and breathing all at the same time is hard work for a little dude. We're also told that this is the reason that some babies stay in the NICU so long: they've met all their other milestones but can't quite get the coordination down and get as much milk in as they need. So fingers crossed he does well!
James' weight has topped his birth weight of 3 lbs 10.2 oz as he is now 3 lbs 10.8 oz! He dipped down to 3 lbs 4 oz at his lowest but has steadily been gaining which is great to see! We've got a growing boy on our hands. They expect about an ounce a day on average and the minimum weight to go home is 4 lbs.
In the meantime we're just doing kangaroo care as much as possible for bonding and good tummy time on our chests. Kangaroo care is where we take turns holding him in just his diaper while we are bare chested so there's lots of skin to skin contact. He can hear our heartbeats, smell us and just have some good quality connection time.
We're working on diaper changes and experienced one blow out that almost hit momma. Aunt Caitlin, Marcus and I had a good laugh while Daddy just looked on in horror at the mess in his isolette. I didn't know babies could poop with such a force! James also did a fountain pee onto his own face and Grandma's hand giving mom a good laugh. Good times and I'm sure there are lots more of these incidents to come.
Following pictures are from yesterday, July 23.
Grandma was lucky enough to be the first to person to hold James other than Mom and Dad. She was in the right place at the right time (I had to get up and go pee) so he got passed off to her and snuggled right up.
Big stretch during nursing cares
Thanks for checking in!
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