Rooming In

The NICU has deemed Noah stable enough to come home tentatively for Tuesday morning if all goes well. To make sure we can care for our child at home we get to have a "rooming in" experience. We get to stay in a room outside the NICU with Noah and take full care of him for 8 hours while he is not connected to any monitor except the apnea monitor and his oxygen--the only things he will be connected to at home. All the apnea monitor shows is if his heart rate is too fast, too slow or if he stops breathing. Seeing as I am already scared of this child, we have been here for almost three hours and the apnea monitor has gone off 4 times already. Three times for him stopping breathing and one time because his heart rate went too low. I called the nurse and she told me when the monitor goes off just look at him and make sure his color pinks up if he happens to be dusky or blue. Flip his feet, or stimulate him if he is blue and doesn't recover and turn pink on his own. Although we had to take Daniel home on oxygen and the monitor he never had problems like this. They are saying Noah is refluxing (his milk is not staying in his tummy and coming up the back of his throat) and he holds his breath to protect his airway. Sometimes if they hold their breath for long enough it will drop his heart rate. Nothing that a little foot flipping can't solve, right?!? Anyway here's our little slice of heaven room right outside the NICU: Also here is a picture of Noah without his feeding tube in: