5-29-08

We were on a rollercoaster today. His oxygen sats were kind of all over the place. Having the feeding tube in his intestines definitely helped with his breathing. Now that it came out and is back in his stomach, it is showing a big difference and his breathing has worsened. Hopefully the tube will work its way back down into the intestines and his breathing will improve again. They took him off the antibiotics today and are increasing his sodium suppliment in his feeds. I got to hold him for about 45 minutes today. Then, I got to put him back into the incubator for the first time by myself. The nurse stood by to help with the chords. Of course as soon as we got done, he had a poopy diaper and needed to be changed. The nurse laughed and said he must be really comfotable to go potty while laying on my chest. We ran into my doctor in the halls at the hospital today and he said it was ok for me to walk a little around the house and NICU. He said to do it in baby steps. I am so tired of not being able to take care of myself so he is allowing me to get out of the wheel chair from time to time using baby steps to try and see how my body handles it. I did ok a couple times while in the NICU and around the house, but then my body started wearing out and my bp went up some so that was enough for me and mom made me get back in the wheel chair and sit down. I am struggling to keep up with Blake on milk. This bp medicine is draining me of fluids and if I can ever get off of it, they are not sure that my body will recover and produce more. That stinks for me because it makes me feel like a failure when I see all these moms bringing in completely filled bottles to their babies and mine are like one quarter filled. There is a medicine that moms can use to promote milk, but I can not get on it due to my bp and even when it settles down they said I still can not take it. I am even getting up around 3am to start pumping and every two hours there after to try and get in enough pumps. Robert is coming up tomorrow and sometime this weekend is going to get to hold Blake if he wants. They said he can start kangarooing as well. He is so excited. The nurses love Blake. The charge nurse told us today that several nurses have requested to be scheduled with Blake because he is such a doll. He's our little man. They are going to try and start scheduling him with a block of certain nurses. That way, we do not have to go through too many 'one-time' nurses and have to explain his background of likes and dislikes to each one that comes through. We will have more of a stable communication line and they will know him like the back of their hands. That made me feel better since we are going to be here for so long. They have all been wonderful...each member of the staff and we appreciate all they are doing for him and the great care they are giving him.