But first, in honor of President's Day, I would like to make a quick list of my top 5 favorite presidents (I won't take the time to explain why, just take it from a US History teacher that there is thought put into these...):
1. William Henry Harrison
2. James K. Polk
3. JQA
4. Millard Fillmore
5. George W. Bush
Oh wait, those are my LEAST favorite presidents. haha! Here's the real list:
1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. FDR
4. Abraham Lincoln
5. JFK
So on to Logan:
He's doing well! Saturday I did make it up for his 8:30am feeding. It was really difficult to get up at 6:45 and shower and stuff. I rewarded myself with a chicken biscuit, cinnamon roll & soda. Yum yum! I got there by 8:00 and woke Little Man up with a diaper change. Then the nurse weighed him and I got him to latch on. When he had slowed down and was getting tired, we weighed him again. He had eaten 18cc! I gave him his bottle next while the nurse supervised. He took some more in the bottle, but I don't remember how much. I know he didn't complete his feeding. After that I laid him back down and I tried to nap a little bit. It kind of worked, but not well enough.
Jesse came up a little before noon. Logan also had a very special visitor - his Auntie Ruthens! She was in town for my baby shower, so I told her to stop by and meet Logan. He was pretty much conked out for the entire visit. Ruthie and I left to go to my baby shower and Jesse stayed with Logan. He was going to give Logan a bottle for his 2:30 feeding. Before Logan goes home, Jesse and I both have to be able to give him bottles.
My shower on Saturday was with my friends at Brittany's house. We had a lot of fun and ate some yummy food.
I went home after that and was feeling really exhausted by the time I got home, and really wanted to nap. But I needed to put some sheets in the laundry and unload the dishwasher. I unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded it. Then I poured in some detergent and pushed start. And nothing happened. I opened the door and tried again. Still nothing happened. So awesome. One week after our dryer died, our 2.5 year old dishwasher dried. Just what I needed (not). If anyone knows of a great and inexpensive repairman, let us know. Before we drop a few hundred on another appliance, I want to make sure there's not an easy (or inexpensive) fix.
Sunday, there was another shower, this time with my mother-in-law's side of the family and Jesse's female friends (or significant others & moms of his guy friends). The shower was held at a German Restaurant in downtown Stone Mountain. That was another lovely shower, also with some good food.
After the shower, we went up to the hospital for his 5:30 feeding. We got there just in time! Jesse dropped me off while he parked so I could head on up to the NICU. I got there and was walking down the hall and heard a baby crying. I thought in my head, "I wonder who's baby that is." Well, it was mine! He was wailing up a storm. He was hungry and knew he was hungry. He's definitely a growing baby - he cries more often now. And while we were hoping he wouldn't be a crying baby, it's a good sign that he recognizes hunger, has more energy, and stronger lungs. So we'll take it.
There was a nurse in there changing his diaper and getting him ready to eat. I basically had time to sit down, put on a nipple shield and hold out my arms for him. He immediately latched on (the first time he's done that) and started eating. I was watching him eat and trying to monitor him and pay attention to his monitors. Well, he had an apnea episode, and let me tell you, that's the scariest thing ever. I don't know how many of you have been feeding your baby when he/she stops breathing. His heart rate dropped to the 60s and stayed down there long enough to notify the nurse. He didn't get himself out of it, so I started to burp him. That helped get him breathing again and brought his color back to a health color (he basically had no color in his face during his episode). I was so terrified that I didn't want to put him back on to eat. Instead I just held him to calm my heart rate. I already have terrifying visions of him coming home and having an episode. It's enough to make me want him to stay in the hospital until he's 2 (not really, but it's probably the scariest thing I can think of with him right now.).
So the nurse came back in and weighed him. The good news is that he took 38cc! His feedings were 45cc at that point, so he only needed to take 7cc by the bottle. She gave me a bottle and I settled in to feed him. At this point I was still so scared about his episode, that I was being WAY too gentle with his bottle. I think I wasn't really putting milk into the bottle, so he was just sucking air (so we had a few good burps!). But finally I calmed down and he started drinking. He ended up taking an additional 10cc I do believe, so more than he needed. He was such a good boy for his mama! Jesse held him after that while I pumped. We went home a little while later.
Today was an eventful day. I woke up and noticed Yoda was acting weird. I observed him and saw that he was trying to avoid his rear left leg. I called Jesse and let him know, and then called the vet. They could fit him in the morning, so I finished breakfast and took him up there. They took some blood and then the vet observed him walking and felt around his leg. She wanted to keep him there for x-rays, so I had to leave my other baby at the pet hospital. So I had two babies at the hospital today - which was so not cool! Jesse decided that he wouldn't visit Logan today so he could pick Yoda up and spend some good time with him. We can tell the pets are a little uneasy and off-kilter with our new schedule and all the craziness going on, so we want to try to comfort them as well. Thankfully Yoda just has a mild sprain. Unfortunately, that means we have to keep him off of his leg for two weeks, so he's going to be crated when we're not there. We're trying to keep him on the couch or bed when we are here. The vet doesn't really want him walking on it at all. This is going to be difficult for us, he loves to be excited and jump around.
I got up to the hospital around 2:15 and walked into Logan receiving his physical therapy. Little Man gets a massage with this, I was a little jealous! The PT checks his reactions and such, and said that he's doing great. She said he's bringing his hands together and to his mouth, which is great. He follows her finger with his eyes, he has decent head control, good muscle tone, etc. He was awake for this and ready to go for nursing again. This time he took 36cc. I was learning how to get him to pace. The biggest thing is that I have to forget the monitors and learn to watch him for the signs of not breathing. He has to pace himself. I watched him carefully and at one point noticed he hadn't breathed in a little while, so I pull him off and sat him up. Sure enough his alarms started going off, so I just started burping him. His heart rate went right back up and he did great.
Before he started eating I had talked to the nurse about how he was doing (he's up to 5lbs 15oz) and asked her about the episodes he has had and how to handle those on my end. She mentioned that they said I handled his episode from yesterday well. I confessed that outwardly I may have handled it well, but inside was all panic and fear and every emotion that goes with those.
But anyways, after he finished nursing we gave him the bottle. He is up to 48cc with tube feedings and 45-50 with the bottle. He has to finish 45cc, but he can take up to 50cc. So he finally started eating and I was watching him. While the nurse was in there, he had another episode. I gently took the bottle out and burped him to get his heart rate back up. The nurse said it was long enough for her to have to make a note of it. She taught me how to pace him, though. Watch for 3-5 sucks, then lower the bottle and force him to breathe. So I will start paying attention to that to help him not have episodes. If he has an episode when he's closer to coming home, that will delay his discharge by at least 3 days.
After that I held him for awhile because he was awake and so cute. It's not good to rock or shake him yet, because that is overstimulation, so we just sat there and stared into each other's eyes. Oh, and I started walking him through the different president's and the different things they did. I put him back in his crib before I could finish, so I could pump. He stayed awake, so I read him some more books. When I was going to deposit my milk, he started crying. I talked and sang to him and got him to quiet down a little, so I started going through the presidents again. When I got to Nixon, he started crying again. I guess we know who Logan's least favorite president is...
So this time I washed my hands and picked him up and got him to stop. I put him back down and he seemed to start sleeping, so I took my milk up to the front. When I came back, he was wailing away. The nurse asked if I wanted her to put him on his stomach (he can sleep on his stomach since he is monitored), so I said yes. We decided to change his diaper and figured out why he was crying. He had a monster poop! After that, and once he was snuggled up, he fell right asleep.
We've had a lot of people ask if we know when he's coming home and the answer is no. They won't give us a date until it's about 2-3 days away, and that date could even change. Logan has to be able to take 8 bottles a day and not have any apnea episodes. He's only at 4 bottles a day. I'm hoping they will bump it up to 5 soon. The thing is, eating on his own is exhausting, so he wears himself out. He has taken all of his bottles yesterday and today at least up until I was there. But they are also looking at how long it takes him to finish. Plus, we need to let him sleep. So if you come visit him, please don't try to wake him up. He needs to sleep in between feedings to conserve and build up his energy to eat. That's also why they don't really want him being held that often. He just needs to rest and build up the energy. So fingers crossed that he gets bumped up to 5 bottles soon (there's a good chance this will take awhile for him to get used to, since he will have 3 feedings in a row where he has to work for it). But when we know that he has a tentative discharge date, we will share it with everyone. It can sometimes get a bit frustrating for us when people ask only because it reminds us that we don't know yet and he's still not home with us. :(
Here's some pictures of our increasingly chunky boy:
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