Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Weight Check
Today Logan had his weight check to make sure nursing was going well. Turns out Little Man is a porker--he is up to 7lbs 13oz! So I'll stop worrying about whether he's getting enough and start worrying that he won't have a chance to wear all of his newborn clothes! Here's a picture of him from this morning.
Monday, March 11, 2013
The Best Laid Plans...
This week was supposed to be my last week at work. It was going to work out perfectly - Fulton has a teacher workday on Friday, so I was hoping to meet with my long term sub and go over where my kids had left off, etc. They were all going to be finishing up a unit this week (or last) and I was going to have my grading completed and in the books, with everything all nicely and neatly laid out on my desk and ready to go. Well... we all know how that worked out! Logan had other plans, and while it took me a bit to accept that, it has worked out nicely - just maybe not as neatly as planned.
This past week has gone pretty well considering he's home and we're finally like new parents. He had his first pediatrician visit last Monday and received an A+! That's my boy! If he is capable of A's in life, A's are what I expect. But B's and C's will be ok (at least I try to tell myself that I will be ok with those for my children). Anyways, the pediatrician's scale had him at 7lbs! That was quite a jump over his first weekend home (of course, the scales probably are a little off)...
I asked the pediatrician about supplementing after breastfeeding and when I could start switching from bottle feedings to nursing. She said that if Logan looks satisfied and has the requisite 6-8 wet/dirty diapers a day, then I could discontinue supplementing! That was great news for me! I had found that because I was supplementing him and then pumping after nursing, I would cut his nursing times short. Now I could just let him nurse to his heart's content. I also decided to stop pumping after nursing because I didn't need an oversupply of milk, and EBF moms (exclusively breast feeding) don't pump after they nurse, so why should I? She also said that I could start gradually removing a bottle feeding and adding in a breast feeding. I decided that I would start with his noon feeding this past Thursday, and if that went well, then switch over his midnight feeding this past Sunday. Well, now that I am mostly breast feeding, we no longer have a schedule, except for his 6:00pm and 6:00am bottle feedings, which Jesse does. I now feed Logan on demand. I think he may be going through a growth spurt, too, because yesterday I felt like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Logan has a weight check on Wednesday, so if that goes well, then I will dump his 6:00pm bottle feeding. Jesse and I decided to keep his 6:00am bottle feeding for multiple reasons:
.jpg)
.jpg)
This past week has gone pretty well considering he's home and we're finally like new parents. He had his first pediatrician visit last Monday and received an A+! That's my boy! If he is capable of A's in life, A's are what I expect. But B's and C's will be ok (at least I try to tell myself that I will be ok with those for my children). Anyways, the pediatrician's scale had him at 7lbs! That was quite a jump over his first weekend home (of course, the scales probably are a little off)...
I asked the pediatrician about supplementing after breastfeeding and when I could start switching from bottle feedings to nursing. She said that if Logan looks satisfied and has the requisite 6-8 wet/dirty diapers a day, then I could discontinue supplementing! That was great news for me! I had found that because I was supplementing him and then pumping after nursing, I would cut his nursing times short. Now I could just let him nurse to his heart's content. I also decided to stop pumping after nursing because I didn't need an oversupply of milk, and EBF moms (exclusively breast feeding) don't pump after they nurse, so why should I? She also said that I could start gradually removing a bottle feeding and adding in a breast feeding. I decided that I would start with his noon feeding this past Thursday, and if that went well, then switch over his midnight feeding this past Sunday. Well, now that I am mostly breast feeding, we no longer have a schedule, except for his 6:00pm and 6:00am bottle feedings, which Jesse does. I now feed Logan on demand. I think he may be going through a growth spurt, too, because yesterday I felt like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Logan has a weight check on Wednesday, so if that goes well, then I will dump his 6:00pm bottle feeding. Jesse and I decided to keep his 6:00am bottle feeding for multiple reasons:
- We decided he doesn't need to forget how to take a bottle before I go back to work, since he will be taking several a day when that happens.
- Jesse likes the bonding experience with Little Man.
- It forces Jesse to wake up on time. :)
- It will help out my schedule when I go back to work.
- Right now I get to have a little extra sleep since I don't have to feed him that one time a day.
Last week Logan had lots of visitors. He finally got to meet his great-grandmother Wade! I have a feeling he's just going to love her. He also met his "Aunt" Lori and my mom finally got to hold him (as did a bunch of other people!). And his "uncle" Jason and Gruncle Steve and Graunt Deb. Sorry if I left someone out! Today he is going to meet his Aunt Hannah who was down from Washington, DC, for her brother and sister-in-law's baby shower this past weekend.
Jesse went back to work this past Wednesday. He's been such a big help, though, doing things around the house. He's been putting stuff together, cleaning the house, helping keep it clean (because I'm horrible at that - just ask anyone who has lived with me), and hanging out with Logan while I get some sleep.
I've been hanging in there. Logan, for the most part, has slept well in his cradle in his room. He has some nights where he wakes up fussy a lot more than others, but now that he's not on a feeding schedule, I just nurse him back to sleep (he falls asleep and stays asleep maybe 70% of the time). There have been a few nights where he hasn't done this and I've ended up sleeping later in the day when he does, but so far so good. I'm not expecting this to last so that I don't get my hopes up, but I sure hope he continues to sleep well enough like this! He is also nursing much better! I can't ever quite tell how much he's getting, though. Sometimes he nurses for 20 minutes and is done, sometimes 40 minutes, this morning he nursed for an hour! Of course, it's not like he's eating the entire time.
The pets are slowly adjusting, too. As mentioned, we're trying to give them tons of attention, so they don't associate Logan with bad things and then take it out on him or something like that. I cuddle Yoda when Logan is asleep in his room, or carry the cats around. Both Mozart and George have shared my lap with Logan while I nursed him. We let them come into his room when we are in there so they can sniff around and such. Of course, Yoda is afraid of the space heater and the car seat, so he doesn't come in often. With the weather getting nicer and me adjusting more and more, I may see about taking Yoda and Logan for a walk. Plus, I want to start getting back in shape. It will be slow going, I have to take it easy on my abs because of diastasis recti (look it up if you're really interested), but I may join a gym for the first time in my life. That means I will have to figure out what to do with the Little Man when I do start going.
Anyways, I will leave you with some pictures of Logan!
.jpg)
.jpg)
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Yoda and the Pets
Dear Friends and Family,
When you come over to meet Logan, please make sure to greet Yoda before rushing over to see Little Man. Logan doesn't care if you are here to see him, but Yoda does. And even though we have Logan, Yoda (and the cats) are still just as much a part of our family. We haven't thrown them over for Logan, so you shouldn't either. I'm not trying to be harsh, but the animals are sensitive and are affected by the change. They have spent the past 6.5 years being our only babies. We're trying to make sure they know they are still important to us, too. But, it's not always easy since Logan does require more attention than them. Poor Mr. Cat must be feeling upset, he knocked over a cookie jar and broke it all over our kitchen floor the other night. Georgie Cat has been extra-cuddly with me, and Little Fred has looked a little dejected. So please, remember our animals are our babies, too. We haven't forgotten, so neither should you.
Thank you very much,
Sarah & Jesse
.jpg)
When you come over to meet Logan, please make sure to greet Yoda before rushing over to see Little Man. Logan doesn't care if you are here to see him, but Yoda does. And even though we have Logan, Yoda (and the cats) are still just as much a part of our family. We haven't thrown them over for Logan, so you shouldn't either. I'm not trying to be harsh, but the animals are sensitive and are affected by the change. They have spent the past 6.5 years being our only babies. We're trying to make sure they know they are still important to us, too. But, it's not always easy since Logan does require more attention than them. Poor Mr. Cat must be feeling upset, he knocked over a cookie jar and broke it all over our kitchen floor the other night. Georgie Cat has been extra-cuddly with me, and Little Fred has looked a little dejected. So please, remember our animals are our babies, too. We haven't forgotten, so neither should you.
Thank you very much,
Sarah & Jesse
.jpg)
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Rollercoaster
Sorry for the delay, but as the title implies, this past week or so has been a rollercoaster for us.
Two Fridays ago Jesse and I went up to the NICU together one he got off of work. While we were there, the nurse mentioned, "Oh, Logan should be going home Sunday or Monday." This is all Jesse and I could think, "!" He had just been upped to 7-8 bottles! We knew it would be sometime the next week, we just didn't think it would be that early. Plus, we hadn't done the carseat test (really, Angle Tolerance Test). We hadn't set up Logan's room (we had been planning on doing that Sunday) and there were still things we needed to get for him. We decided to wait and see what the Nurse Practitioner had to say on Saturday before we completely panicked.
Saturday I had my last baby shower with Jesse's dad's side of the family. I planned to see Logan after the shower and then head home. Jesse was going to go up and see him while I was at the shower, then go spend the evening with the Wades to celebrate his sister's birthday. While at the shower (which was very beautiful and wonderful), the NP called and said Logan was ready to go home the next day. That put me in all out panic mode, I had been hoping that it would be Monday so we could spend Sunday setting up Logan's room. I called Jesse and told him we weren't getting any sleep that night.
Sidebar: the reason we needed to set up his room is because we had just put every present we had received in the center of the floor. There were things still in boxes, the furniture not where it was supposed to be, and I still needed to wipe down the rest of the walls from the dust of getting new floors.
So I got home from feeding Logan around 8:00-ish. Jesse went to his dad's, but stopped to pick up the glider at Babies R Us (that was the one thing we both REALLY wanted and felt we probably needed). I started working on Logan's room and when Jesse got home he helped. I ended up going to sleep around 3:00am and Jesse around 5:00am. We got up early so we could finish getting what we needed at Babies R Us and then head over to the hospital. We had to be there by 11:30 because I had a lactation consultation. Well, we got there and were just balls of nerves. We were so not ready for Little Man to come home. We definitely wanted him there, but mentally, we hadn't had time to prepare. I settled into a chair and prepared to nurse Logan after discussing some things with the lactation consultant. Logan started nursing, all was going well, and then, "ding! ding! ding!" He started to have an episode. I pulled him off and we watched him recover, but it was enough that the nurse had to report it to the nurse practitioner and doctor. We knew what that meant, Little Man wasn't coming home after all... :(
The nurse practitioner came in and said that she wanted me to spend a night at the hospital. It's called nesting. They have a special room in the NICU for this, where parents can practice being parents, while the baby is still monitored. She really wanted me to do it that night, but I was so exhausted I knew I just needed to go home and get some sleep. She did mention that I needed to practice nursing him as much as possible, so I planned to stay at the hospital for his 5:30 feeding (his 2:30 was a bottle feeding and Jesse did that one). So after we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and Jesse fed Logan, I took Jesse home (we actually made a side trip to Target first) and then went back to the hospital. His 5:30 feeding went great, and I planned to be at the hospital the next day for his 11:30.
Monday I was up at Northside for Logan's 11:30 feeding, and also to find out what to expect for the nesting that night. Basically, he and I would go to a room for the night and I would be responsible for all of his feedings, warming his bottles, and changing his diapers. They wanted me to record his diapers and how much he ate. The night nurse would check on him when he was up, but otherwise, he was all mine. So I went back home and packed a bag and got to the hospital around 5:00-ish. Jesse fed Logan a bottle at that time and then we went out to eat. If everything went well, he would be coming home on Tuesday!
Everything went great that night! The nurse and I bathed Little Man in the morning, and then I headed home after seeing him settled back in his room. I took a shower and headed to the hair dresser. After my hair appointment I went back to the hospital because I had another lactation consultation - this one was for discharge plans! Well, I got there and the nurse let me know that Logan had another episode that morning and she wasn't sure what that meant. I was disappointed and called Jesse to let him know. The nurse practitioner came in and gave us two options: we could stay and see how Logan does through his feedings and take him home later that night; or, let him be observed overnight and bring him home Wednesday. We opted for the latter. So instead of going home and picking up Jesse so we could bring Little Man home, I stayed up at the hospital and Jesse met me there. We fed Logan and went home after a little while.
We woke up Wednesday excited. We were so ready to have him home with us! All of those nerves from Sunday were gone, and we were just ready to be done. I went to the hospital around noon to feed Logan. When I got there, the nurse told me he'd had another episode! Once I had some time with Little Man in his room, I just cried for a little while. I was so worried about him and so disappointed. I called Jesse and let him know that Wednesday wouldn't be the day either, and that I would call him after I spoke to the nurse practitioner and knew what was going on. The nurse practitioner came in a little while later and told me that they wanted to put him back on a feeding schedule - every 3 hours. He was only having the episodes for feedings, so they wanted to see how he would do with that. If he could make it 2 days without an episode, then he could go home, so now we were looking at Friday as the earliest possible date. I went home after that because I was emotionally drained. I took a nap and did some stuff around the house. Jesse went up for Logan's 5:00 feeding and I went up for his 8:00. Before I left I asked the nurse to call me if he had anymore episodes. No more of the coming in, thinking he could go home, and being told he'd had another episode.
Thursday we went up together at 4:30. He had done great that day, so things were still looking good. He nursed well with me and then took the bottle well with Jesse. We down to the Parents of Preemies meeting, and it helped to talk about our frustration with all of the discharge dates. Friday was much the same, except the anticipation started building. The nurse practitioner called and said he'd been doing great and we were all set to be discharged. She asked me to go on and make a pediatrician appointment, so I called ours and had that set up. I drove Jesse back to work after his lunch so that we would only have one car to go up to the hospital. Then, around 4:15, I started collecting what we would need. I started to get all teary-eyed thinking of actually bringing Little Man home!
When we go to the hospital, I started to nurse him. About a minute in, he took a big gulp and choked a little. So I pulled him off and let him catch his breath. This of course triggered his monitors and caused him to have a drop in heart rate. The nurse was in there with me, so we were watching him and saw that his color stayed the same. Well, I felt my heart drop, wondering if this meant we wouldn't be able to bring him home or not. The nurse called the nurse practitioner and that talked. Fortunately, they said he was still coming home. It was all about whether or not we were comfortable, because full term babies can get choked up like that when eating. Heck, I get choked up when eating sometimes. I felt relieved that we weren't going to move his discharge date. We got everything packed up, signed papers, and then Jesse took everything out to the car. The nurse looked at me and said, "It's time." She turned off the monitors and the screen went black. I started crying as she removed his leads. I would finally get to hold my baby without wires! They had me sit in the wheelchair and handed Logan over to me. We said good bye to the NICU and his room(s) and were wheeled downstairs to meet Jesse.
I climbed out of the wheelchair with Little Man, and we got into the car. I hooked him into his car seat and started crying again. Jesse drove us home and we got to walk in the house with Little Man! We carried him together and put him in his room. I unhooked him and rocked with him while Jesse fed the animals. We then let them come in to meet Logan. They all sniffed and were mostly indifferent. Since then, things have gone pretty well. We're still adjusting to having him here and coming up with a schedule. We're trying to stick to his - every 3 hour feeding schedule. He is nursed every other feeding, then supplemented with a bottle. I still have to pump with each of his feedings, so Jesse helps me out and usually does the bottle while I pump for the non-nursing feedings. So that is extra exhausting. It would be so easy to give in and do formula, but I have to think of this as just a phase. We'll get to all nursing.
We didn't have Logan's monitors set up for his room (we got these), so Jesse made up a pallet and I slept on the floor next to his crib. He kind of slept off and on inbetween feedings. I let Jesse sleep through the night, I figured at least one of us should be able to, and I definitely couldn't. He got up for Logan's 11:00 feeding and let me nap after I pumped. He did a lot around the house and I felt recharged with about 2 more hours of sleep (I know all of you parents out there know what that's like). Last night he slept in his room and let me sleep in my room inbetween 2 feedings, so that was nice!
I'll keep posting little updates here and there on this site, but the biggest hurdle is done. Thank you so much for following our story and loving Logan and cheering for him along with us. It means so much to us!
Two Fridays ago Jesse and I went up to the NICU together one he got off of work. While we were there, the nurse mentioned, "Oh, Logan should be going home Sunday or Monday." This is all Jesse and I could think, "!" He had just been upped to 7-8 bottles! We knew it would be sometime the next week, we just didn't think it would be that early. Plus, we hadn't done the carseat test (really, Angle Tolerance Test). We hadn't set up Logan's room (we had been planning on doing that Sunday) and there were still things we needed to get for him. We decided to wait and see what the Nurse Practitioner had to say on Saturday before we completely panicked.
Saturday I had my last baby shower with Jesse's dad's side of the family. I planned to see Logan after the shower and then head home. Jesse was going to go up and see him while I was at the shower, then go spend the evening with the Wades to celebrate his sister's birthday. While at the shower (which was very beautiful and wonderful), the NP called and said Logan was ready to go home the next day. That put me in all out panic mode, I had been hoping that it would be Monday so we could spend Sunday setting up Logan's room. I called Jesse and told him we weren't getting any sleep that night.
Sidebar: the reason we needed to set up his room is because we had just put every present we had received in the center of the floor. There were things still in boxes, the furniture not where it was supposed to be, and I still needed to wipe down the rest of the walls from the dust of getting new floors.
So I got home from feeding Logan around 8:00-ish. Jesse went to his dad's, but stopped to pick up the glider at Babies R Us (that was the one thing we both REALLY wanted and felt we probably needed). I started working on Logan's room and when Jesse got home he helped. I ended up going to sleep around 3:00am and Jesse around 5:00am. We got up early so we could finish getting what we needed at Babies R Us and then head over to the hospital. We had to be there by 11:30 because I had a lactation consultation. Well, we got there and were just balls of nerves. We were so not ready for Little Man to come home. We definitely wanted him there, but mentally, we hadn't had time to prepare. I settled into a chair and prepared to nurse Logan after discussing some things with the lactation consultant. Logan started nursing, all was going well, and then, "ding! ding! ding!" He started to have an episode. I pulled him off and we watched him recover, but it was enough that the nurse had to report it to the nurse practitioner and doctor. We knew what that meant, Little Man wasn't coming home after all... :(
The nurse practitioner came in and said that she wanted me to spend a night at the hospital. It's called nesting. They have a special room in the NICU for this, where parents can practice being parents, while the baby is still monitored. She really wanted me to do it that night, but I was so exhausted I knew I just needed to go home and get some sleep. She did mention that I needed to practice nursing him as much as possible, so I planned to stay at the hospital for his 5:30 feeding (his 2:30 was a bottle feeding and Jesse did that one). So after we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and Jesse fed Logan, I took Jesse home (we actually made a side trip to Target first) and then went back to the hospital. His 5:30 feeding went great, and I planned to be at the hospital the next day for his 11:30.
Monday I was up at Northside for Logan's 11:30 feeding, and also to find out what to expect for the nesting that night. Basically, he and I would go to a room for the night and I would be responsible for all of his feedings, warming his bottles, and changing his diapers. They wanted me to record his diapers and how much he ate. The night nurse would check on him when he was up, but otherwise, he was all mine. So I went back home and packed a bag and got to the hospital around 5:00-ish. Jesse fed Logan a bottle at that time and then we went out to eat. If everything went well, he would be coming home on Tuesday!
Everything went great that night! The nurse and I bathed Little Man in the morning, and then I headed home after seeing him settled back in his room. I took a shower and headed to the hair dresser. After my hair appointment I went back to the hospital because I had another lactation consultation - this one was for discharge plans! Well, I got there and the nurse let me know that Logan had another episode that morning and she wasn't sure what that meant. I was disappointed and called Jesse to let him know. The nurse practitioner came in and gave us two options: we could stay and see how Logan does through his feedings and take him home later that night; or, let him be observed overnight and bring him home Wednesday. We opted for the latter. So instead of going home and picking up Jesse so we could bring Little Man home, I stayed up at the hospital and Jesse met me there. We fed Logan and went home after a little while.
We woke up Wednesday excited. We were so ready to have him home with us! All of those nerves from Sunday were gone, and we were just ready to be done. I went to the hospital around noon to feed Logan. When I got there, the nurse told me he'd had another episode! Once I had some time with Little Man in his room, I just cried for a little while. I was so worried about him and so disappointed. I called Jesse and let him know that Wednesday wouldn't be the day either, and that I would call him after I spoke to the nurse practitioner and knew what was going on. The nurse practitioner came in a little while later and told me that they wanted to put him back on a feeding schedule - every 3 hours. He was only having the episodes for feedings, so they wanted to see how he would do with that. If he could make it 2 days without an episode, then he could go home, so now we were looking at Friday as the earliest possible date. I went home after that because I was emotionally drained. I took a nap and did some stuff around the house. Jesse went up for Logan's 5:00 feeding and I went up for his 8:00. Before I left I asked the nurse to call me if he had anymore episodes. No more of the coming in, thinking he could go home, and being told he'd had another episode.
Thursday we went up together at 4:30. He had done great that day, so things were still looking good. He nursed well with me and then took the bottle well with Jesse. We down to the Parents of Preemies meeting, and it helped to talk about our frustration with all of the discharge dates. Friday was much the same, except the anticipation started building. The nurse practitioner called and said he'd been doing great and we were all set to be discharged. She asked me to go on and make a pediatrician appointment, so I called ours and had that set up. I drove Jesse back to work after his lunch so that we would only have one car to go up to the hospital. Then, around 4:15, I started collecting what we would need. I started to get all teary-eyed thinking of actually bringing Little Man home!
When we go to the hospital, I started to nurse him. About a minute in, he took a big gulp and choked a little. So I pulled him off and let him catch his breath. This of course triggered his monitors and caused him to have a drop in heart rate. The nurse was in there with me, so we were watching him and saw that his color stayed the same. Well, I felt my heart drop, wondering if this meant we wouldn't be able to bring him home or not. The nurse called the nurse practitioner and that talked. Fortunately, they said he was still coming home. It was all about whether or not we were comfortable, because full term babies can get choked up like that when eating. Heck, I get choked up when eating sometimes. I felt relieved that we weren't going to move his discharge date. We got everything packed up, signed papers, and then Jesse took everything out to the car. The nurse looked at me and said, "It's time." She turned off the monitors and the screen went black. I started crying as she removed his leads. I would finally get to hold my baby without wires! They had me sit in the wheelchair and handed Logan over to me. We said good bye to the NICU and his room(s) and were wheeled downstairs to meet Jesse.
I climbed out of the wheelchair with Little Man, and we got into the car. I hooked him into his car seat and started crying again. Jesse drove us home and we got to walk in the house with Little Man! We carried him together and put him in his room. I unhooked him and rocked with him while Jesse fed the animals. We then let them come in to meet Logan. They all sniffed and were mostly indifferent. Since then, things have gone pretty well. We're still adjusting to having him here and coming up with a schedule. We're trying to stick to his - every 3 hour feeding schedule. He is nursed every other feeding, then supplemented with a bottle. I still have to pump with each of his feedings, so Jesse helps me out and usually does the bottle while I pump for the non-nursing feedings. So that is extra exhausting. It would be so easy to give in and do formula, but I have to think of this as just a phase. We'll get to all nursing.
We didn't have Logan's monitors set up for his room (we got these), so Jesse made up a pallet and I slept on the floor next to his crib. He kind of slept off and on inbetween feedings. I let Jesse sleep through the night, I figured at least one of us should be able to, and I definitely couldn't. He got up for Logan's 11:00 feeding and let me nap after I pumped. He did a lot around the house and I felt recharged with about 2 more hours of sleep (I know all of you parents out there know what that's like). Last night he slept in his room and let me sleep in my room inbetween 2 feedings, so that was nice!
I'll keep posting little updates here and there on this site, but the biggest hurdle is done. Thank you so much for following our story and loving Logan and cheering for him along with us. It means so much to us!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)