Monday 5 Dec

Big news today, here's a hint:

Hmm... a room with our names on it that's NOT the nursery, what could that mean?  Guessed it yet?

Well, let's start at the top.

 

For some reason they decided to go all metric on me, luckily for those of you who can't convert in your head I have Google's unit converter, which tells me 1965 grams is 4 lb. 5.3 oz.  Which means I'm up again from yesterday - go me!

Still doing well off my cannula, with very few desats.  In fact, I'm doing well enough that they decided I was ready to move to Special Care Nursery!  So when Mom and Dad came by in the afternoon I was finishing a feeding while they were getting me ready for transport:

Notice my name placard taped to the crib?  They loaded all my stuff up onto the crib's cart and then Nurse Nancy wheeled me over there.  It was a long journey:

(I cut out the 15 minutes of walking through empty underground tunnels since they all look the same - suffice it to say that eventually we got there!)

Once I got there, they checked me in with the special care nurses while I slept to recuperate from the journey (What?  Being wheeled around is a lot of work!  It's not like the ground was smooth the entire way, I was getting jostled a bit....)

Anyway, it occurred to me that this was now my fifth home (not counting Mom's belly) - that's gotta be some kind of record for a seven-week-old, right?  I was in NICU nursery B, then NICU nursery C, then NICU nursery H (I think we skipped some letters in there but haven't learned the alphabet yet so not sure which ones) (yes, I recognize the irony of not knowing the alphabet while having a blog, but as I've explained before I don't know the spelling and stuff, I just tell Dad what to write and he's the one who has to worry about the actual letters and words), and now Special Care.

I have to say, it's pretty fancy - Ben and I have our own room!  I mean, ideally I'd like my own room just for me, but this isn't too shabby; we each have our own side of the room, our own monitor, our own couch and TV.  Take a look:

I tried to look around the room more but it was pretty bright:

Once Mom and Dad got the lights figured out better I was able to wake up and see them, as well as look around the new digs a bit.

Pretty big day, huh?  I'm gonna get a good night's sleep and try to check out more of Special Care tomorrow, stay tuned!

Sunday 4 Dec

Up to 4 lb. 4 oz. today when Dad came by early this morning to check in.

It was a quiet morning; I was sound asleep through Dad's entire visit, just enjoying a nap!

I did want to try something a little different - sucking my thumb instead of my pacifier - but couldn't quite figure out how to get it into my mouth...

... so eventually I gave up and went back to sleep.

Mom came by later in the day and found that since I had been breathing well they took me back off my nasal cannula.  Ta da!

Unfortunately for her she couldn't see it all that well since I was hiding in my blankets to keep warm:

(but you'll notice there are no air tubes coming out!)

Pretty much just rested today, trying to stay stable since the doctors said that if Ben and I both keep doing well we might be able to move to the Special Care Nursery soon.  Fingers crossed!  (not literally, of course, I don't actually have the coordination to do that, but I mean I'm hoping we can go to Special Care soon!)

Saturday 3 Dec

Yay weekend!

That's me, holding steady at 4 lb. 3 oz. (or they forgot to write down my new weight and it'll look like I have a big jump tomorrow - either way better than losing weight!)

I'm allowed 2-3 bottles per day now, and once I'm successful with all of those they'll start increasing the number again.  Goal is 8 bottles per day - and I have to finish all of them - before they'll let me go home, so still a long way to go but I'm working hard at it and making progress!

Mom and Dad came by in the late afternoon to visit.  As usual, I was asleep when they got there (what?  I need my 22-23 hours of beauty rest per day - a face like this doesn't come free!)

And yes, I still have my strawberry hat on from yesterday - why mess with a good thing?  You'll also notice I'm wearing two hats; I was a little chilly earlier so the nurses wrapped me up with an extra blanket and gave me the extra hat.  I'm still getting used to this maintaining-my-body-temperature-outside-the-incubator thing, plus I think there's a little draft in this area (since clearly the chilliness couldn't be my fault - Dad says he felt it too).

Anyhow, I slept right through Dad doing my temperature and diaper (I had a nice poop ready for him, my second big one of the day!)

After that it was time for my feeding, so we got right to that - I guess I was hungrier than I had thought since I gulped down the first half (~20 ml) of my bottle in about 6 minutes!

Pretty impressive for someone who's 90% asleep, huh?




After gulping that down so fast, Dad burped me and I made one giant burp that was so loud the nurse at the other end of the nursery yelled that she had heard it from there!  (very ladylike, I know, but I repeat:  I was hungry!)


Then I sucked down the rest of the bottle (for 40 ml total) in about 9 minutes, so total time for the whole thing was under 20 minutes, even including two burpings (and yes, the second time I was once again pretty loud).  More impressive is that unlike my brother who likes to spit his food back up I kept it all down.

Dad held me for about another hour after eating.

And okay, I'll admit I got a little too comfy and had a couple of brady episodes, but once again I don't think I should get all the blame - I'm also not used to having a full tummy yet, since most of my eating to this point has been through the tube, where it drips in slowly rather than all coming in at once. (although in fairness I guess I didn't have to eat my whole bottle so quickly, but you can hardly blame me for enjoying a meal - I'm an epicure, and I think Mom had sushi last night, which is a personal favorite of mine).

When I had my third episode they decided it might be better if I was back in the crib so Dad put me back, and they gave me a little extra oxygen to help me recover better while I was still digesting.

(okay, I'll admit it, oxygen makes me sleepy!)

I feel back into a half-asleep mode while Mom and Dad visited with Ben for a bit, then woke up to say goodbye when they were ready to leave for the night.

That's it for me today, I've got to rest up so I can do a great job with my 3 bottles tomorrow again.  Sweet dreams everyone!

start of December

Well, you can chalk another delayed post up to parental ineptitude - Dad left the camera at work after visiting Thursday so wasn't able to upload my pics, and i know everyone wants to see pictures of my gorgeous mug so didn't even bother posting that night.  Anyway, here's what's been going on the past copule days:

Thursday, 1 December

Weight at 4 lb. 1.6 oz., down a little from my high but still staying above that 4 pound mark.

Dad came to visit in the morning, and found me sound asleep.

 

I was sleepy so didn't wake up to say hi, although I did make my displeasure with having my sleep disturbed for a diaper change known!

Mom came later in the day for my 5 p.m. feeding and tried breastfeeding with me (don't have pictures since, as I mentioned, the camera had been left at Dad's work), but I was still pretty sleepy and didn't take very much, so they did my whole feeding through my nose tube.

Friday, 2 December

More weight progress (well, at least recuperating what I had lost) as I'm back up to 4 lb. 3 oz., and getting better at my feedings with each passing day - I took a full bottle this morning!

After not being able to wake up for either Mom or Dad yesterday, and knowing they were coming for my 5 p.m. feeding today, I made sure to get a good day's sleep so I could wake up when they came.  My plan worked - I was still asleep when they arrived, but woke up when they started doing my diaper and temperature - even held my own pacifier in for a bit!

After all that was done, Mom took me out and did my bottle feeding.  I stayed awake for the whole thing!

In fact, Dad was even able to get a little video of me bottle feeding, which *should* show up below (if not, bear with me, I'm still working out this whole "posting videos" thing and this is my first stab at it - and I'm only 7 weeks old, so it's not like I've had a lot of time to practice!): 

I'm getting better at the bottlefeeding but still take in some air, so luckily Mom did a good job burping me since I definitely had some air in my tummy!

As you can see, I was pretty happy when the burp finally came out!  (one thing I've learned from my brother is that Mom and Dad tend to take more pictures if (a) you open your eyes and (b) make funny expressions, so I've been working on both areas so I get more pics to work with for the blog - you're welcome, loyal readers!).

I was still wide awake after eating my whole bottle, so just stayed out and visited with Mom for awhile while Dad sat with Ben.

Mom held me for over an hour total, including my feeding.  We had a good visit, then I finally started getting sleepy so she put me back in my crib.  However, I was a little jealous of Ben getting so much attention for his dog hat so I put on my own strawberry hat.

Now who's the cutest? ;-)  Back to bed for me, I'll post again tomorrow (provided no more parental blunders with the camera)!