The Best Thing: Baby Steps

Sweet boy,

You are one month old and Momma is starting to get very anxious to get you home! I know you need more time to get bigger and healthier, but I want you all to myself!!!! Its staring to get harder and harder to watch all the other babies get to go home. I keep having to remind myself, well actually your Daddy is the one reminding me that they call it "baby steps" for a reason...

So now for your update: You are still having issues with your irregularity. Today is Sunday and you have not pooped since Thursday night! Your belly is not distended and you aren't having any residuals. I don't get it... where is all that milk going?! You weighed just over 4 lbs today, so you aren't gaining THAT much weight. The doctors, again, aren't too worried about it, but you are getting a contrast enema tomorrow morning to see if there is anything wrong. If you still haven't pooped by then, well I feel REALLY sorry for the doctor that has to do the procedure! Hopefully, there will be nothing wrong and you might just be one of those babies that doesn't poop a lot... I hope that is the case, because your poop issues are keeping me up at night!

You are eating 27 ml of milk every three hours, and today you took TWO FULL bottles! Most of the time you have been taking 10-20 mls, sometimes you are just to sleepy to take anything at all. Whatever milk you don't take from a bottle, they will give it to you through your feeding tube. It is very important for you to learn to take all of your feeds from a bottle, you have to do that before you can come home! Preemies really struggle with learning how to suck, swallow, and breath. You have to remember that you are technically not supposed to be doing any of these things we demand of you. So, when you do eat from the bottle sometimes you will forget to breath for a few seconds or it will just be too exhausting for your little body and you will fall asleep!

You might also get out of your "hot box" or your incubator soon! I call it a hot box because when you do finally poop, or when you have gas, you STINK UP that incubator! I will open one of the arm holes, and holy moly, you stink kiddo! I'm blaming it on the whey protein they have added to your milk for the extra calories. Your Daddy drinks whey protein, so I am well aware of the... ehem... gassy side effects. They have had your incubator set on the lowest temperature (80 degrees F) for almost two weeks and you have been maintaining your body temperature within the appropriate levels, anywhere from 98 to 98.9 degrees F. One night last week they tried you in an open crib, but you weren't quite ready for that yet. You dropped your temperature below 98, so they put you back. It takes a lot of work for preemies to maintain their body temp, and we want you to use that energy to grow instead of working to keep warm. Lately, I have not seen your temp below 98.6, so maybe we will try you in an open crib again this week!

You have come SO far in your first month, and it seems like there are not that many more things that you have to accomplish before you can come home... but unfortunately, they are some major tasks. The doctors told us when you were born that you would be in the NICU until your due date, March 22. I'm hoping SO MUCH that you get to come home before then! But maybe, your Momma just needs to slow her roll, relax and remember that we are taking baby steps...