8 weeks old!

Brant is 8 weeks old today and weighing in at 5 pounds 13 ounces!!! His heart rate has been high the past few days so they decided to do an echocardiogram to try to figure out what is going on. They did that yesterday morning and I got a call at 3:15 this morning with the results- everything came back normal which is great, though we still don't know why his heart rate is high.

I came in a little frustrated this morning... his night nurse and day nurse have differing opinions on how to go about feeding him and his oxygen support. His night nurse was bumping him up to 40% oxygen during his feeds so that he would take more from the bottle and breathing would be a little easier during and after his feeds. But talking with his day nurse she doesn't think he needs to be pushed that hard with bottle feeding because it will just click with him as he gets older and she doesn't see the need to push him. I don't really know what to think... I'm leaning towards what the day nurse is saying because yesterday we had him down to room air and then to hear he was up to 40% last night just sucks. Yes he is taking more from the bottle but he is totally worn out then. I'm going to talk with the nurse practitioner and his doctor today to get their opinion and decide on a plan to go about things so that we're being consistent and talk to them about what his high heart rate means or what could possibly be going on.

On another note his preemie clothes do NOT fit anymore! We are in newborn sizes now so when I go home I need to go through the few clothes I have and grab all the newborn stuff and bring them back with me on Wednesday!

The plan for today as of right now is to take his vitals and see if he will be interested in bottle feeding at 12. And then before he eats at 3 I will give him a bath. And then sometime after that I will head home, or wait until after his 6:00 cares. I haven't decided yet, we'll see how the day goes!

Nothing new...

Nothing really new to report other than his weight- he is up to 5 pounds 9 ounces as of this morning! Otherwise everything else is the same. He has his days and nights switched so tonight I think they are only going to let him take a bottle for two feeds rather than all of them and hopefully that'll help him be a little more alert during the day. We gave him a bath today- the picture above I took a couple minutes ago. He's all clean, got fuzzy hair, just ate and happy!

I'll be headed home Saturday night. Going to spend the day with Darren on Sunday and head back to work Monday and Tuesday and a couple hours in the morning Wednesday. I have a Dr. appointment in Bellingham on Wednesday and will head back down after that. I'm already having guilt issues just thinking about leaving him... But he will be fine, I just need to keep telling myself that!

Yeah... that tube isn't supposed to look like that- He got a good yank on it but I stopped him before he got it all the way out. 

Pictures!!

New outfit from Derek, Malorie & Macy! 

Grandpa holding Brant for the first time!

7 weeks 1 day

Sorry for the lack in update! Brant is doing fine. He was up to 5 pounds 5 ounces yesterday morning but lost a little weight. He's between 5lbs 4oz and 5lbs 5oz. He is needing about 30% oxygen on the 1 liter/minute regular nasal cannula.  talked with the nurse practitioner today and once he is at 21% they will talk about weaning him down to maybe 1/2 a liter and go from there. She said they are in no hurry to do this yet because they aren't getting ready to send him home. When he gets closer to a discharge date they will push him a little but now they are letting him decide when to do the changes; his body let's them know when he's ready. The biggest hurdle he is going to have to overcome before coming home is eating. He has to take all of his feeds from a bottle and that just takes time for him to learn how to do it. He seems to have his days and nights mixed up... he takes full bottles, or close to full bottles every feed at night and then sleeps mostly through the day or he'll wake up for 1 or 2 feeds and takes just a little bit from the bottle before going back to sleep. And he loves to be held. He was held most of today by me, mom and dad. Darren, mom, and dad headed down this morning for the day. They made a pit stop at Cabela's and got Brant some cute little outfits, and Darren and dad got gun stuff... of course.

Nicki, Tanisha, and I drove down yesterday morning. We hung out at the hospital until about 3:30 and then went to Northgate to try to find Tanisha a JSB dress and a dress for Prom. Our original plan was for me to go with for about an hour or so and then Nicki would drop me back off at the hospital and they would continue the search. BUT Northgate had NOTHING. It wasn't that they didn't have any dresses we liked, it was that they didn't have any dresses period. The whole mall had maybe 10 long dresses, and of those they were either not cute at all or had nothing for sizes. So they dropped me off at the hospital and headed downtown. When they picked me up to go get dinner and head to the apartment for bed they still found nothing- and had the same problem we had at Northgate. At dinner we were searching the Internet on our phones for prom dress stores in the area. They ended up heading to Tacoma this morning after they dropped me off. Nicki was texting me pictures of the dresses the lady at the store had Tanisha try on, they had a lot of really cute dresses but man have styles changed since I was in school... and it hasn't been that long! Sorry but I don't consider a bikini top attached to a long skirt by a few pieces of string a dress! I don't know how girls feel comfortable in that stuff- I mean how do you dance in something like that without exposing yourself?? haha but she found 2 really pretty dresses! (and not bikini top dresses! hehe)

Anyway... we'll see how this week goes for Brant. I'm hoping and praying his feeds continue to go well and he builds up some stamina to take more during the day. And his need for oxygen goes down from 30% to more lower 20's. He isn't really having any more brady's. He did have 2 today but we had to put him in an awkward position and he spit up a little bit so that explained those. He has a bit of a diaper rash too. Desatin doesn't seem to be helping so they put in an order through the pharmacy for a stronger cream. But being Sunday it was going to be a few hours before we got it so the nurse had him on his stomach with his bum up in the air, exposed, under a light and I guess that helps it heal. I talked to the night nurse about an hour ago and she said it was already looking better just being open and exposed and he was comfortable so she was going to try to keep him in that position for as long as he could handle it tonight to try to get it to heal. He looked so funny.... I did take a picture- it's going to be one of those super embarrassing childhood pictures! He also had a hearing test the other day and passed! He won't need to have any further testing at this point. Love news like that!!

I will post some pictures in the morning!

Little Champ!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!!! 

We had a bit of a rough day yesterday. Wednesday night Brant woke up for every feed so they bottle fed him. When I got there in the morning he was SO tired. The rest of the day he spent fussing and crying. I could not get him to sleep or make him happy. We didn't bottle feed him during the day so he would get some rest. He was wide awake for his cares at 5 so I gave him the bottle, he only ate 8ml's out of 43... his worst feeding yet but he was OUT after that. I also think we are going to struggle when he comes home to get him to sleep in the quiet... I think we'll have to get a noise soother or something.

Last night he had an AWESOME night. He took 2 FULL bottles. His nurse was really surprised. Usually after babies take their first full bottle they are so tired they will sleep the rest of the day. He did sleep through his cares this morning but that's good! He needs some rest.

I drove home last night. Darren and I went over to Ryan & Becca's and hung out there with them and Derek for a while. I haven't seen any of our friends in a long time so it was nice to talk to them. So far today I've been packing and straightening up the apartment. This afternoon I have some errands to run and then I'll be headed up to mom and dad's to do some laundry, play with Diesel and help mom make dinner for tonight. And in the morning I'll be heading back Seattle with Nicki & Tanisha. Darren, mom and dad will head down Sunday morning for the day.

Soooo crabby.... 

finally asleep! 

More Progress!

Brant is doing awesome! He is off the high flow nasal cannula and on the regular nasal cannula. He is doing great on it- around 23-26% oxygen and sating great! He weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce!  They stopped his caffeine, iron, one other supplement (don't remember what it was) and changed his multi-vitamin to one that better suits his age/size. Starting yesterday at 11 a.m. we started bottle feeding him. Yesterday he ate from the bottle every other feeding because its a lot of work for him and it tired him out so bad. BUT today he ate from the bottle at every feeding! Granted he doesn't take his full amount of milk from the bottle- he doesn't have the stamina for that yet but it's better than yesterday! SUCH great progress is so little time. If the night nurse doesn't give him a bath tonight we will do it tomorrow.

Darren and Nicki came and visited for the day. I have a check-up appointment with Dr. Easterling in the clinic here tomorrow and I will head home tomorrow night. Just a quick trip home, I'll head back Saturday morning. I have a few things to take care of at home and it's dad's 50th birthday on Friday. Instead of going out dad wanted to have a family dinner at home so we are making all his favorites! Steak, stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, and caesar salad.

Awesome day so far!

Brant is doing great! Weighing in at 4 pounds 14 ounces and they weaned his high flow nasal cannula down to 1 Liter (he was at 2). He is doing really well on it- his oxygen saturation has been around 92 all day, which is great! If he keeps this up his nurse will switch him over to the regular nasal cannula! 

We also tried bottle feeding for the first time at 11 today. He did better than she was expecting. It really tired him out and that is to be expected. She said it takes time and it's a lot of work for preemie babies. BUT its a start!! 

Sooo tired 

stretching! 

I had lunch with another mom in the NICU today... WOW what a story. I feel so fortunate that Brant is doing so well. She said during her C-Section the resident messed something up so she felt the whole procedure and couldn't move her body for like a week without crying in pain. Her little girl was doing awesome and they were getting ready to go home in a week or so and the nurse accidentally turned her oxygen up to 100% and damaged all her lung tissue. She said they are basically starting over their whole journey... I couldn't imagine getting ready to come home and then have such a bad set back! She said it was going to be a LONG road until they get to come home now... so sad!

Growing, growing, growing...

Well Brant had a pretty uneventful night last night. He does have some reflux going on so they raised the head of his isolette to see if that'll help. His nurse also put him on his tummy and that helped a lot. He just finished his last feeding so we'll see how it goes, might have to put him on his tummy if he has another desat. but so far so good! He weighs about 4 pounds 12.5 ounces today

Here is what my day will consist of:

A CPR course and carseat course... and snuggling with Brant! 

Yesterday we gave him a bath... that was, well I guess interesting would be the word. I had NO idea what I was doing or how I should hold him and what to do with his tubes. But with the help of Terry and Darren and mom & dad we did it! It was quite the production. Mom & dad were taking pictures and telling me what spots I missed. Darren was on binkie patrol (holding it in Brant's mouth for him so he'd stay calm) and Darren dried him off. And Terry was walking me through the steps and adjusting my positioning. He had a bath the night before so it was really more to teach me and soak his bum for a while because he had a little rash going on. 

Me getting everything ready...

 

All undressed and waiting... He knew something was going on! 

Terry explaining how to hold him

this was before his bath when Terry was telling me what to do

Another before picture...

Getting all dried off 

And what's that?? His carseat!! Terry gave us a heads up that if we wanted to purchase one from the hospital they only had 1 left and were on backorder for like 3 months. So we grabbed it. It was a lot cheaper getting it from the hospital than it would've been from any other store. 

St. Patrick's Day Outfit! 

Little froggy butt :) 

Pictures!

Pictures from yesterday!

Hiding his face...

Playing with his pacifier 

We put his UW sockies on! 

New outfit from Grandma Nicki

6 Weeks Old

Brant is 6 weeks old today! He looks so different even from a week ago. He weighed 4 pounds 10 ounces this morning. Still on 2 Liters on the high flow nasal cannula and was at about 24% oxygen today. He is getting 39 cc's of milk every 3 hours. The nurse practitioner said that tomorrow morning they will discuss weaning him down to 1 or 1.5 liters. We will see. The nurse also told me to get everything ready at home because his adjusted age is now 34 weeks and she figured he would go home at 37 or 38 weeks. SO the UPS guy better be ready to deliver a bunch of stuff to our place from Amazon! I will be staying here for as long as I can. His nurse said this week will be a really big teaching week for me and they are going to set me up with all these classes with the physical therapist so I feel comfortable and confident when we take him home.

We had fun with him today... we dressed him up in some new clothes and he was wide awake and happy when I changed his diaper... at least tried to 3 times- each time I'd get a clean one on he'd poop again and he just looked up at me with this little smirk on his face.

As for me I'm feeling good today. No headaches and I didn't get super tired half way through the day (though it helped I slept in the car on the way down). I think what I need to do from now on is not go to the hospital so early or stay so late. 12 hours at the hospital 5-7 days a week is exhausting! '

 I think tomorrow we will give him a bath! I will post pictures first thing tomorrow morning! the internet at the apartment is too slow to that now.

Boring is good.

Not much new to report for Brant. He weighs 4 pounds 8 ounces!! He had a HUGE weight gain Wednesday. That was his weight yesterday morning, he only gained one gram yesterday. But 3.5 ounces in one day is HUGE! The night nurses have said that for the past couple nights he gets super crabby and irritable when they wake him up to do his cares. He just wants to sleep! He's tuckered out from all the growing he's doing. His nurse this morning had to put in a new feeding tube, a bigger one because the supplement they are putting in his milk is making it too thick to go down easy in the tube he had. And she had to re-tape his prongs because he's gotten way too good at pulling them out.

As for me I'm okay... I go up and down through out the day. I'll feel totally fine and back to normal and then feel like crap again and have a major headache. But those are the side effects to the antibiotics I'm on. Mom, Nicki, and Tanisha are getting me out of the apartment tonight and we're going to go get pedicures. Then tomorrow it's back down to Seattle for a couple weeks I hope.

Change of plans....

Brant is doing well. He weighs 4 pounds 4.5 ounces. They popped the top off of his isolette today too. So now he is wrapped up in all sorts of blankets to keep him warm. The plan is to let him grow more before they try weaning him off the high flow nasal cannula. They will be checking his temperature every 3 hours and as long as it stays stable they will find him a crib or a bassinet to put him in. They increased his feeds too. And the little stinker kept wiggling the prongs out of his nose today. He was so happy and snuggled right in when I held him skin to skin today. About an hour and a half into it though he got super fussy and we think he got too warm. Mom took his blankets off to make sure he was positioned okay and as soon as she did that he calmed down. 

 Mom and Nicki drove me down today. The plan was for me to stay and them to drive the van back that Darren left over the weekend. But that didn't happen...  I am still really pale, and just not feeling like myself yet. I wanted so bad to stay but mom and Nicki both said to me after being at the hospital for a while that I should probably go home for a couple more days and get myself better. After a while of thinking about it I agreed. I won't get better down there, I would probably end up making myself worse. I need to not have the option of going to the hospital in order to get LOTS of rest. So for tomorrow and Friday I will be locking the doors and turning my phone off and sleeping to be better by the weekend. Darren & I will head down Saturday as well as my mom and dad. At least that's the plan as of right now. I feel so guilty for leaving the little guy but there is nothing I can do for him if I feel like crap. We stopped at Smokey Point and went to Target and got some dinner. Of course we had to check out the baby section there- it is huge compared to the Bellingham Target! I wanted to buy so much stuff but I refrained... it's not like we had any room in the car anyways. 

Well here are some pictures we got today- he's getting so big!! 

His setup... 

Getting situated... 

All snuggled in 

And there goes his tongue!