11w

Well, progress continues.

His labs yesterday were improved. His WBC count was down a bit, and the percentage of those that were EO cells went from 25% to 16%. His X ray still looked good. Physical exam is still good.

They upped his feeds just a tad- 25ml/3 hour and put him on Home O2. (Say it fast. Giggle with me quickly. I'm 12.) It's low flow instead of high flow. So instead of getting 2 liters/minute at 25% oxygen like he was yesterday, he's getting .25 liters of 100% oxygen. So far, he's loving it. He was satting 100% pretty much all night last night. He had one brady (of course when I wasn't in the room) but overall, was doing great. His heart rate was staying low and I was a little concerned. So was his nurse, but she talked to the NP and they said as long as he wasn't breathing really quickly, it was fine. I think his body was just adjusting to the new way of breathing.

I opted not to hold him much just to let him rest. He seemed pretty peaceful, so I just talked to him or sang to him so he knew I was there. If he'd have fussed, I'd have held him, but this way he could adjust w/o the extra stress of being out of bed and moved around. I gave him a bottle feeding and held him a while earlier in the night, at least.

They've decided he can have 2-3 bottle feedings/day. And.


I can start nursing once a day!

So the big plan for today is that he will get his first shot at breastfeeding.

We have our favorite nurse this weekend and when I called this morning to check on him, she said her plan was to get me to nurse today. She'd already talked to the lactation consultant to make sure it was okay if she (our nurse) did it instead of the LC and it was fine.

So I'm excited! Nervous as this will be my first shot at this, but excited. I hope it goes well. The bottle feeding is going great, so hopefully that'll translate into a good experience here.

As for me, I'm going back to bed. I just got up to pump. I'm taking advantage of the fact that we have our favorite nurse today and I feel like he's in the best hands (that aren't mine, anyway) and getting some rest. I don't think I had more than 5 hours of sleep all week. I fell asleep at a stoplight turning into the hospital the other day. Scared the crap out of myself. Thank God I wasn't actually moving.

But work is done. Time to catch my breath.

Trish