Good Morning! First of all, Micah is home!!! Woo Hoo! So, now for the update. Yesterday we went to visit Golda. She was doing well, mostly sleeping. Her face changed a little and she looks a somewhat more hearty since she has started on breast milk. She is also a bit more alert, focusing with both eyes for a minute or two on an object, which slightly alleviates our worries about any disabilities she may have. Last night she had two more episodes where her oxygen level and her heart rate dropped and didn't come back up until they stimulated her. I asked about this since it was the first time in a while that her heart rate dropped too and the nurse explained that they are "allowed" to do this until they reach what would have been full term (November 11). She said that the night nurse thought it might also be related to her Anderson tube - something I have been telling them for the last couple of days - she has been gagging on her tube as though it isn't in properly and the tube actually comes out of her mouth a little bit when she gags. The nurses have fixed it and shown it to the doctors but no one has thought it a problem until last night. I am hoping they do something about it before I get there this afternoon. If not, I will get it done while I am there! Anyway, Golda is still on her CPAP on room air and is eating 4 ml of breast milk over an hour every three hours. She weighs 1226 g (2 lbs. 11.24 oz.).
Leah is doing well. I breast fed her yesterday, but she was way too sleepy to do a good job of eating so Daddy took over with her bottle while I got discharge instructions for Micah. Poor Daddy - he got stuck changing her poopie diapers twice (and was saved from another one by the nurse)! She is now eating 45 ml of breast milk and weighs 1640 g (3 lbs. 9.84 oz.).
Micah ate well while still in the NICU and looked adorable in his little home-coming outfit. We have appointments for him with an opthalmologist, the neurodevelopmental clinic and the high risk clinic over the next month, in addition to his pediatrician today at 1 pm. These are all just routine evaluations that all preemies undergo and in fact, for some of them, they made appointments for all three babies (or any that are home in time).
We got Micahhome around 5:30 pm last night. Mema, Pepa and Harrison were waiting for us upstairs. Harry was very excited to see his brother coming in. Mema fed Micah his bottle while Pepa played with Harry. Mommy and Daddy finished getting their bedroom ready to share with Micah. When Micah was ready for his 8 pm bottle, Big Brother Harrison stepped up! He sat on the couch, cradled his little brother and fed him almost all of his bottle! I will post photos later (they are on Mema's camera). He did a great job and was declared the Best Big Brother - BBB according to Harry! And to re-inforce that title, he kept trying to change poopie diapers, but of course, we didn't let him do that... yet. Then it was quiet time and we all laid down in our bed to watch the debate - needless to say, Harry fell promptly asleep.
The first night with Micah at home went relatively well. We set an alarm for every three hours since he still needs to eat that often and can't skip meals yet but it turned out that wasn't necessary. Micah started squeaking pretty loudly and woke me up each time. We were both up for the 11 pm feeding, then I went to sleep and Jon got the bottle ready for the 2 am feeding. I fed Micah while Jon went to sleep. That feeding and the 11 pm one took quite a while and had me wondering what was going on. When I got up for the 5 am feeding I decided to try using the Level 1 nipple on the bottle instead of the preemie level nipple. That seemed to do the trick! Micah ate faster and didn't lose interest as easily as with the other nipple and finished before an hour. As I finished up the 5 am feeding Jon woke up to get Harry ready for school and I went back to sleep. Harry was very good, not making too much noise so he wouldn't "wake our baby". I guess waking Mommy is okay though! I woke up when Jon and Harry left for school to get ready for the 8 am feeding. We're gonna have to work on this schedule since I can see it being problematic when there are two and three to feed in the middle of the night and it takes more than an hour to do, but for now it's okay. No point in changing everything up when Leah should be home in a few days anyway!
Okay, I gotta go and get the 11am feeding started! So nice to have one of my babies home!
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