Week 7

Please forgive my terrible attempt at blogging. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day!

What we've been up to:

Lots of tummy time! 

Don't be fooled. This is clearly an ancient form of torture. 

It usually ends like this. 

In other news, Dan is still as colicky as ever. We're slowly trying to figure out some of the quirks that seem to upset him, but it seems to just be an unfortunate case of grumpiness and colic. He's still having a difficult time sleeping, but occasionally we're blessed with this: 

The elusive Sleeping Daniel

Dan occasionally will take a decent afternoon nap. Unfortunately, he'll only nap on me. Which means I don't get a lot done, but the snuggles (and sleep) are worth it. 

What is it about boys and their need to keep their hands in their pants? 

We met with Dans pulmonologist today. Good news! Dr K thinks that Dan is doing a great job, and he should be off of oxygen soon! YAY!! 

He's a bit modest

Dan is growing well on our new schedule of formula and breast milk. Dr K (the  pulmonologist, his lung Dr) is very pleased with his growth. His PDA scar is even fading! 

You can barely see his scar! 

She was very impressed that Dan hasn't been sick or needed to return to the hospital in the month that he's been home. All that hand washing and breastfeeding have paid off! She's going to keep his diuretics the same and not adjust them for his gain in weight and hopefully we'll be able to slowly wean off of them as he grows. 

We are also going to start weaning his oxygen! YAY!!!! We'll start with just an hour a day off of his O2 and increase from there. She's hoping that he may be completely off of his oxygen by the end of August!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! That's GREAT news!! 

And please excuse my blogging failures... I'm trying to update when I can, but I apparently need to hit Publish as well as I just saw that his July 4th update didn't post. We'll get the hang of this soon! 

- Jen

Happy Fourth!

Momma says today is a very important day! We're going to a barbeque, but she says that's not why it's important. I thought it was important because people were going to get a chance to meet me, but it turns out that today is important for other reasons. Interesting.

I'm wearing my special outfit today. It's red, white and blue, just for today. And it has a crab on it, because I'm feeling a little crabby! It's very hot out, and Daniel does NOT like the heat!

I got to meet lots of friends today! Miss Judy, and Miss Gerry and Miss Felicia! And I got to meet lots of family members! It was great, everyone said how handsome I was, and how smart I was. They're right of course. I am very smart and handsome! 

There were so many yummy things to eat tonight! I couldn't decide between a hamburger and a hot dog, but Momma just gave me a bottle instead. I tried to swipe some pasta, but Daddy held me back! 

Then, after everyone said Hello to me, and we all had enough to eat, I laid down with Daddy so he could take a nap. He didn't seem to be able to settle down without me, silly Daddy! 

Happy Fourth of July! 

Week Five

Dan had a weight check with Dr Q today. We also saw one of the residents we met in the NICU. He was very pleased to see how big Dan has gotten and all the progress we've made!

First things first, we have success! Our goal when leaving the NICU was to average a weight gain of 25 - 30 grams per day. At the first weight check Dan had gained 210 grams, but that was only 15 grams per day, so we fell pretty short of our goal. At that point we were trying to breast feed as much as possible and give just 4 bottles of formula a day. After that weight check we went home with instructions to up his formula intake. Dr Q is very supportive of breastfeeding and she was thrilled that Dan is actually able to nurse (many NICU babies never get the hang of it). However, the most important thing is that Dan gain weight and grow. The more he gains, the bigger he gets, the bigger his lungs get, the less lung disease he'll have. Our big goal is to fatten him up as much as we can before RSV season hits. It's a little Game of Thrones around here lately.. Winter is coming! But it's not here yet, thankfully.

So, we went home and added more bottles. We're at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to breastfeeding. My pregnancy was cut short, then things got pretty stressful, I wasn't able to nurse right away (for months, actually) or even hold Dan for quite a while. Those things don't bode well for successful breastfeeding. But with the help of some medications, lots of pumping, skin to skin time with Dan and nursing as much as possible I've been able to up my breast milk supply quite a bit. Unfortunately, it's still not enough for Dan, and there isn't much more that I can do to make it better. So we've switched to giving Dan formula for all of his feedings for the bulk of his nutrition. I still nurse Dan before almost every feeding, and at different times during the day. It's a great way to calm him down when he's upset, and a good way for us to bond. While it's upsetting that I can't breastfeed him exclusively, the most important thing is for him to be healthy and well fed. I'm going to continue to nurse him as much as I can, and know that any breast milk that he gets is a good thing, full of antibodies and immunities.

So two weeks of increasing formula and..... (drum roll please)..... he gained! He gained a lot! Dan gained 44 grams/day for a total of 4.30 kg. That's 9 lbs 7 and a half ounces! He's almost 8 lbs above his birth weight! Yay!

Now that we're not exclusively breastfeeding we can try to get Dan on more of a schedule. Which will be a good thing because our schedule is still all over the place! Some days Dan has great, predictable periods where he's awake, feeds and sleeps. It's fabulous. He spent two nights sleeping in back to back four hour stretches. Glorious! Then we have days where he's pretty cranky all the livelong day and doesn't sleep at all. Yesterday he slept for 45 minutes from sunup to sundown. Days like that are trying for everyone. So hopefully this new feeding schedule will put us all back on track and there will be sleep and peace in the land once again!

We had a lovely visit from my mom last week! She came down to visit and Dan was smitten. Like any good grandchild he behaved for Grammie far better than he does for Mom & Dad. We're talking naps, easy feedings, and burping! Daniel is not a fan of burping and will do anything possible to not burp, but he'll do anything for Grammie! Consequently he has refused to burp since, which has made for some painful feedings.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, my phone was acting wonky so I wasn't able to capture that sweet face very often.

Happy Fourth of July!
- Jen