Great Day for lil' man!

Today, Antwan took Micah and my mom up to the hospital. She hadn't been up there for a few days and needed her baby fix. Micah really wanted to give Isaiah a bath. I told him I was offered the chance to do it, but by the time I would have made it back up to the hospital, it would have been late and I don't like to stimulate him very much after 7pm so I am saving it for another day. Micah was not happy but he got to see his brother so he was at least ok about it.

Antwan called me and asked if I wanted to come up to the hospital to try my hand at breastfeeding today. I screamed HELL YEAH! (Sorry...forgot to mention this was a pg13 post hehe) I got dressed pretty quick and went up there. When I got there, I chatted with a couple other moms for a hot second-like I usually do. My mom and Antwan call it running my mouth. One of the moms was told she would be taking her baby home on Friday. As wonderful as it is to know that someone gets to go home, it's still hard because it's not me taking Isaiah home. But I know my turn will come. Anyway, on my way to his room. I saw his nurse and she said for me to go ahead and take his temperature and change his diaper. Temp was normal and diaper was LOADED!!!!! I mean fully loaded. A ton of urine and a good amount of yellow poopie. Nurse Amy weighed it (as they always do) and it was 120g. She was amazed as normally they are about 40-48g. Good job Isaiah!

Amy got him ready and within a few minutes, he was in my arms and began the job of getting him to latch on. He did it pretty easily. And started sucking away like he's been doing it for ever. He was on for a few minutes. Then it started to feel funny so I know I needed to reposition him. When I took him off, I saw milk come out of his mouth. That was exciting because I know he was getting milk. I was a little concerned because I had nursed not too long before I went up to the hospital. I wasn't expecting too much because this was just a trial for him. And it may not go as well the next time. But we're just getting used to it so it's like we're going thru the motions. He only lasted for a few minutes then was done. At times, he was rooting, but when I offered, he would have it in his mouth, but wouldn't nurse. Not sure if he just wanted it in his mouth or he was having trouble figuring out what to do. That's ok. Overall, Isaiah did awesome.

NP Val stopped me on my way out. We went back to Isaiah's room and she filled us in on what was going on with Isaiah. The PICC line in his leg was removed yesterday. They are looking to remove the on in his arm. But they may hold off for a few as that is the only one left that they can use to give him meds thru the IV. So they may have to do just an IV line for that. They have stopped his antibiotics, but the med for the fluid buildup in his lungs (due to the chronic lung disease) is still being administered and the x-rays warranted it. They also said that if the nursing goes well, they will be stopping the other fluids. That means no more TPN-no more lipids. They want me to start nursing 2 times a day. Sometime during the day and sometime in the evening. He can't handle doing back to back. It requires too much energy at this point. I also was advised that I need to start thinking about the bottles I will be using when I give him my expressed milk. Once he gets the nursing down, they will start the supplemental feedings by bottle and the feeding tube will be removed. I will either have to storage and find the Dr. Brown's bottles or buy some new ones. I may end up getting new ones as I want to make sure there is nothing that could cause him to get sick. I packed, double packed and triple packed them to make sure they were protected, but you can never be too careful with a preemie that already has medical issues.

I am so thrilled at how far my little guy has come over the past weeks. I can't wait for his next milestone.