Day 4

Good morning!

I think I may have become addicted to blog posting. I'm such an attention whore. I just want to share all my little guy's info with everyone all the time.

I suppose now is the time to do it because one day he'll get to come home and then I'll probably be too busy to pee, let alone tell you all about it.

Yesterday was really a good day. There's more to the story of yesterday but it deserves it's own post and I'm waiting for permission to share other people's information, so for now, just know that people are so incredibly kind and good and we appreciate them (you!) so much.

As I mentioned, the neonate doc had told the nurse to go ahead and start feeding Robbie my milk because I had more than enough to keep up with his needs.

As of my 4am call to check on him he's now had 4 feedings. She said the last 2 he didn't leave any residual and said that in the way that means "and that's a good thing" so I'm calling it a success.

His oxygen is somewhere between 30 & 35%. They told us last night that a lot of seems to depend how active it is.

Our little guy is really feisty (I threatend to ground him yesterday if he didn't quit pulling on his tubes. He's stressing his nurses out- nevermind his mom!) and when he gets to really kicking and punching, he requires more oxygen.

They said he'd quieted down a fair bit after midnight, so he was pretty calm.

he was like that in my belly a lot, too. I used my Doppler every morning to listen to him because when I got up in the morning, he was always SO quiet. By mid afternoon, his movements would pick up. most of the day at work, he'd stir around a lot and then in the evenings, he'd be bouncing on my bladder. (He was breech, so I had feet in my bladder pretty much the whole time.)

It's so amazing to me to learn his habits all over again. I guess I didn't really expect anything, but I really didn't expect it to be the same outside the womb as it was in. It wasn't until the nurses asked if he was a big kicker that we started to sort of compare the two times and realized he's just a quiet morning baby.

Both David and I are reallY NOT morning people, so I suppose we passed that on honestly.

Anyway, the big plan for the day is that David and I are going to have breakfast together before really starting our day.
We actually had dinner together last night in the cafe in the hospital.

I'd been ordering my food from "room service" (it's a little closer to hotel room service than most hospitals I've seen) and David had been eating on the run a lot- either in the cafe between visitors or grabbing fast food as he came and went bringing/taking supplies from home.

So we got to share our first romantic dinner together as parents. He had a fish sammie and fries, I had roast pork. We laughed at how intimate it felt. The changes that come with parenthood are quite surprising.

So we decided to do it again this morning with breakfast, then we'll visit Robbie and go from there.

We know that he's getting his heart echo today to check for a PDA. They actually don't think he has one, but it's one of those things that is super common on preemies so they want to be sure. I'm not sure if they do it right in the NICU or take him somewhere or what. With every answer seems to come 100 more questions.

I've started keeing a notebook by the phone so I can write things down and look them up later.

In other news- my boobs are a constant source of amusement for me. This must be how my husband feels all the time. (He's a boob guy, you know.) The pumping is going extraordinarily well, in my opinion. I'm now getting about a half an ounce from each breast at just about every session. I still feel like leftie & rightie are in a race, it seems one or the other starts out a little faster but then the other lasts longer and brings it home in the end.

Leftie is starting to get just a little sore. I mentioned to the nurse just a little while ago that I think I'd like to talk to the lactation consultant at some point today. I'm pretty sure it's just the way the cone rubs, but I'm not sure what can be done about it exactly. Hopefully they'll have some advice (I am using lanolin, for the record.) Since I'm going to be exclusively pumping for what is likely 3 months, better to get the best information while I can.

In the midst of writing this post, my OB came in for rounds. I seriously adore her. She is going to bump up my BP meds. They started me on a very small dose yesterday but it didn't do much. She is doubling it today but said it's still very small so not to worry too much about it. My incision looks good, though very bruised. She said they'll decide tomorrow if they're going to take my staples out before I leave or follow up and have it done in the office.

I asked when I'll be allowed to drive and she said basically when I'm off the pain meds and can twist & turn w/o trouble. That was a better answer than the "two weeks" I was expecting. The sooner I can drive, the sooner I can really figure out a plan for visiting Robbie during the day. In the meantime, I'll be at the mercy of friends and family. Not that we haven't been offered LOTS of help in that regard, but I also hate to be a PITA. Gas isn't cheap these days.

Anyway, that's where things stand as of this morning. I'm sure I'll have something more to add later today, but in the mean time I'm going to try to catch a quick nap before my 8:00 pumping and then get ready for breakfast with the greatest new dad ever. (There is going to be a post coming where I brag about my husband. But it also deserves its own entry- both because I have so much to say and because it's likely to be so nauseatingly sweet that anyone with a weak stomach might want to skip it.)

--Trish