Miles’ NICU week - Tuesday

Throughout our first night stay at Carle, I was that mom who called up to the NICU every time I got up to pump.  His nurse, Amber ,was so kind and thorough in telling me what was happening and how he was doing.  At about 5am, I just couldn’t handle it anymore and asked to go upstairs while William snored slept on.  I got some great skin to skin time and it was wonderful to see him without a tube in his nose (he still had one in his mouth and about 4 attached other places).After our snuggles, the nurse said she needed to change his IV line (can’t quite remember the reason why).  She attempted 2 times to find a new vein.  Then she called another nurse who tried twice.  At this point I was pretty much in tears.  Policy is if they try 4 times, they have to call the charge nurse (the lady in the middle in this picture).  She warned me that if she couldn’t get it in they would likely have to put an IV in his head where babies have great veins the tubes don’t get in the way as much.  I prayed and prayed and she was able to get a vein on her first attempt.  Thank you Jesus!By the time I got back after eating breakfast, my little guy was starting to look quite yellow.  After talking with the nurse, his bilirubin was continuing to climb so it looked like some phototherapy was going to be in order for later in the day.At about 10am, while William and I were both up there I FINALLY got my first chance to breastfeed him.  Even with his little tub in his mouth, he latched on and nursed like a champ.  Tears.  (see a recurring theme?) My mom came up around 1:30 to get some much deserved first-time Grandma snuggles. Later in the day, William and my parents brought the kiddos to the hospital.  Because it’s not flu season, they allowed children older than 3 into the NICU so I was able to see my sweet Owen!  He was pretty overwhelmed with everything going on the NICU so he didn’t really want anything to do with Miles. He just acted goofy and very clingy.  So I took him back down to my room and got some good Ellie cuddles.  It’s amazing how much I missed them through all of this!  William stayed through dinner time and we enjoyed our special “new moms and dad” dinner which actually wasn’t too terrible for hospital steak.  He headed back home since my parents needed to get on the road and I went back upstairs.

Because Miles proved that he could latch and drink and his cleft wasn’t going to prove a problem, after lunch his feeding tube was removed!At 10:20pm, they got him prepped for his first time under the phototherapy lights.  He HATED the mask but calmed down thankfully before I left him for the night.  Probably one of my biggest frustrations on Tuesday was seeing how little colostrum I was pumping.  THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL!  But never had I seen it being pumped out.  With Owen and Ellie I just nursed and trusted they were getting enough.

In the ounce-driven world of the NICU, I knew that he would be getting a little formula that night.  Thankfully, the “seasoned” momma bear in me was able to be ok with this.  My motto became – whatever gets him out of here the fastest!