Ready or Not Here He Comes...Home

Yup, we finally got the ok to bring Noah home. We had to pass off our infant CPR and sign a bunch of papers saying we can take care of him and then they let us strap him in the car seat and leave. He looks so teeny in the car seat. As of last night he is only 6 pounds 4 ounces so he's still pretty little. So far Daniel and Sarah have been the only ones to meet him because Josh and Matthew are still at school. Daniel loves him, Sarah she doesn't quite know what to think about him yet. I brought him home and fed him only to have his apnea alarm go off twice because his heart rate dropped too low. He still scares me, but he has done ok so far and recovered himself back to normal after both alarms going off. I know it hasn't been that long since I brought Sarah home as a newborn, but you forget about all the little grunts and groans and little noises newborns make. I still can't believe Noah is here, but it helps when I can hold him and feed him on my own schedule rather than the NICU's schedule. The kids all drew pictures welcoming Noah home this morning. Also yesterday at Monica's house they all drew pictures welcoming Noah home as well so we have lots of decorations celebrating the fact that he finally is home. Aaron even went and got some blue balloons to hang up and Sarah was overjoyed this morning when she woke up and saw the balloons. Anyway here's some of the pictures from today:Here's his bed at the NICU:Noah taking his first car ride. He looks so little in his car seat!Sarah and Daniel meeting Noah for the first time.
Sarah still doesn't know what to think about him yet. Now we are just waiting for the Home Health company to bring his oxygen tank and apnea monitor supplies. I have his first pediatrician's appointment tomorrow. That should be fun with all his equipment as well as Noah and a diaper bag in tow.

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:

The Latest and Not So Greatest...

Yesterday I went in to see Noah and everything was going great. They had removed his feeding tube because he was taking all his feedings by bottle. Then I was able to go in to rounds where the neonatologist, nurse practitioner, developmentalist, dietitician, social worker, charge nurse, bedside nurse all get together to discuss Noah's plan of care. That is when they brought up the topic of going home. That is the first time I had heard about the possibility of going home soon. In order to take him home we have to be trained in infant CPR as well as trained on how to use the apnea monitor and the oxygen. I went ahead and scheduled Aaron and my training for Saturday morning and we got a tentative discharge day of the following Monday if Noah continued to do great. Aaron and I were so excited! That lasted until I came in this morning to find out Noah had had an "episode" with his 5 pm feeding the previous night. During his feeding he dropped his heart rate and oxygen rate dangerously low and couldn't recover. The nurse ended up putting the resuscitation mask on him and using the bag to squeeze 100% oxygen over his mouth to help him recover. That is scary and it also means that a Monday discharge date is out of the question now. However, I had already set up babysitting for Saturday so Aaron and I will still be trained on the equipment, but we won't be needing to use it for a little while. We are definitely learning patience!!

As for my sis-in-law Jill she continues to be on complete bedrest (they aren't even letting her up to use the bathroom). They are trying to keep her pregnant as long as possible so she can't have any pressure on the cervix to keep her from going into labor. She has made it passed the critical 48 hours so now the next "goal" will be making it to 30 weeks which is in 4 more weeks. They are even hoping she can make it passed 30 weeks, but we are taking it day by day. Her body could go into labor at any minute so keep her in your thoughts and prayers please.

Jill and Noah Update

Jill, my fabulous sister-in-law who has been here helping me out for the last four weeks while I recooperate from having a c-section and a preemie, was supposed to go back home to Texas today, but of course things don't always go according to plan. She came upstairs yesterday morning and woke me up crying and saying something was wrong. I called Aaron and he came home from work to take care of the kids so I could take Jill over to Labor and Delivery to see what was going on. This is her first pregnancy that has lasted this long and she is only 26 weeks along of a 40 week pregnancy. She's really early to be having problems. They put her on a monitor and saw a few contractions. They then started an IV, and sent her over to see the Perinatologist who is a doctor who deals with high risk pregnancies. They did a big ultrasound to check out the baby and found she had no cervix left and was trying to go into preterm labor. Luckily, the baby looks fantastic. Unluckily, she will have to spend the rest of her pregnancy on strict bedrest in a Utah hospital. She has almost made it past the first 48 hours which is the most critical time to see if they could stop her labor. So far her contractions have stopped so we are hoping she can stay pregnant for a while yet. It is really hard for her to be away from her home and to have all this happening. However, her husband was able to make it in from Texas to see her last night. It looks like she will be stuck in Utah for a while longer. At least with her coming with me to visit Noah she has gotten to know the NICU staff and the routines there. However, we are hoping she doesn't need their services for a while. The crazy thing is she has been put in all the same rooms I was in during my stay at the hospital. She was in the same L&D triage room, the same perinatology room, the same regular labor and delivery room as me. Also all the nurses have found out our story--Jill came out to help me while I was in the hospital pregnant and having a preemie and now the roles have been reversed. So the nurses in the NICU will ask how Jill is doing and the nurses in L&D will ask how Noah is doing. It has been crazy!! Anyway, keep her in your thoughts and prayers please because she needs them.

As for Noah he is doing good. He was having problems with reflux so they put a thickener in his milk to help him keep it down than refluxing it. It looks like it has helped. He is still having problems with his heart rate slowing down and him stopping breathing, but it is getting better. Instead of waking him up to eat every 3 hours, they have let him wait 4 hours in between feedings and it has helped. He has woken up and taken all his feedings by bottle today which is amazing! He is getting better day by day. Here's him fully awake just after his feeding today:

Sprung a Leak

Today for the third time this NICU stay Noah let loose while changing his diaper and got pee all over everything. Then while we were cleaning that up he decided to poop all over everything. We are out of practice of changing baby boys' bums and are just not fast enough. Good thing it was bath day today so he was going to get washed and changed anyway. Unfortunately, after his bath Aaron was drying him off and he ended up pooping even more on Aaron's shirt. We just couldn't win today :). He continues to be on oxygen and can't quite get off. He is getting more alert every day and will stay awake for more feedings. He still isn't waking up on his own yet, but maybe soon. He loves to snuggle and it's nice. Here's some new pictures: Here's my little burrito all snug and tight swaddled in his blankie:

He did nurse today for a whole feeding, but it wore him out. He didn't even wake up to burp.

In other happenings it looks like Daniel is as exhausted as the rest of us. The other day he curled up in his blanket on the floor and was asleep within minutes.

As for Sarah we have learned she loves to dip anything in anything. It has ranged from dipping poptart in fry sauce (YUCK) to dipping chips in salsa (which she LOVES). We have also learned she is a poser and will say "teez" and smile when she sees you holding a camera no matter what she is doing. We have also discovered she loves her toenails and fingernails painted. Jill and I were painting our toenails today and she would come and plop herself down in either of our laps and scream until we painted her fingernails/toenails, too. I am excited to have at least one girly-girl.

Reader's Theater, Bathing and New Clothes

Today Josh had a special program at school. It was called Reader's Theater. It is when a group of first graders read a Dr. Seuss book aloud with each child taking a different part. Josh's group read the book Mulberry Street. Josh loved reading his part and did a great job.

As for Noah I got to bath him for the first time today. I forget how squirmy and slippery newborns are, but he survived the bath. It did tire him out pretty much for the rest of the visit. I tried to nurse him, but he kept dropping his heart rate and oxygen saturations really low, so they ended up just tube feeding the rest of his feeding. At least I got to snuggle him while he got his tube feeding. After his bath we brought in our own preemie clothes to get him dressed in. Here are some pictures of his new clothes:

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

That's how it is with preemies is one step forward and two steps backward. Noah has been trying so hard lately with eating, breathing and growing he has worn himself out. He has needed to be put back on oxygen. He is also having bradycardia and apneic spells as well. This is when his heart rate slows way down and/or he stops breathing every so often. Although a little scary this is normal for a premature infants, unfortunately. He has worked so hard eating and breathing for the last week he has worn himself out and will not wake up for anything. The nurse changes his diaper and takes his temperature every three hours and he will sleep through it. He was so tired yesterday he slept through his entire bath. When I go in to visit most the time he will wake up and breastfeed for at least five minutes and sometimes longer which is great. However, afterwards he sleeps through a few feedings to recover all the energy he expended while nursing. He does the same thing after trying to eat from a bottle as well. For the feedings he sleeps through they just feed him through his NG tube (the tube in his nose). Also to help him grow and develop they have added a fortifier to my milk for extra calories as well as extra calcium and phosphorus to aid in his development. The developmentalist came by again yesterday and he is doing well for his gestational age and even a little ahead of the game for eating. They did find he has a heart murmur, but they aren't worried about it. Daniel has a heart murmur as well and it has not slowed him down any so we aren't too worried. So we are just waiting for him to mature enough to regulate his eating, breathing and heart rate. We are learning patience...Here's some pictures from today with Noah showing off his oxygen tubing and stickers. He also woke up enough to suck on his fingers and nurse for about 7 minutes which was pretty good for him: