Liam Goodman
Little Liam is doing well, he has been moved from the very intensive care side of the nicu to the less intensive care side which they call "progressive care" this means that he has been assessed to be out of the major danger zone. As long as he stays healthy and doesn't get sick he is on track to be home earlier than we thought at first, maybe even this month.
tonight he weighed in at 3 lbs 7 oz, there has been a bit of confusion in the numbers we have been getting, some nurses are saying 3.blank lbs, and others are saying 3 lbs blank oz, but i'm pretty sure that the 3 lbs 7 oz is accurate for tonight. He has been steadily gaining weight durring the last 5 days and it looks like his IV might come out tommorow. He is now eating about a tablespoon of milk every 3 hours and they think that is enough for him so today they stoped giving him nutritional suppliments via IV. The big news is HOW he is eating, over the last couple of days he has started to drink from a bottle! It is still only a few feedings a day by bottle with the rest fed to him through his feeding tube, but it is a major breakthrough. The reason that he is only drinking a few (today 3) feedings by bottle is that for someone soooo soooo small and sooo sooo young it takes a lot of engergy and concentration to be able to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing all at the same time, and the more energy he spends on drinking the less he spends on growing. We are going to try to start teaching him to breast feed soon, but they are still carefully measuring everything that goes in and comes out of him.
Aubrey was afraid he might be sick wed and thursday so he hasnt been to see liam in a few days and now he is off on a buisness trip to Montery, CA for the weekend. Boy will he be suprised when he next goes with me to the hospital! Last time he was there we were very very closely supervised and not encouraged to fuss with him as his condition was a bit more delicate. Since then however the nurses have been teaching me how to take care of Liam, I've been feeding him, even helping with the tube feedings, changing his diaper, checking his temperature, last night I washed his hair and brushed it, I have also been able to start taking him out of his isolet by myself and return him to it (this is much harder than it sounds with him being so small, and having so many wires and tubes). Tommorow I'm going to learn to give him a bath, this will be a bit scary because he isn't able to regulate his own temperature much at all yet.
My mom and i have had a busy days between being at the hospital, we finally got a complicated situation involving a crib sorted out, and one will be delivered on monday. We bought a stroller, car seat, vibrating seat, swing, bedding set, super itty bitty outfits, and most of what we need. My mom did a lot of things around the apartment that are very helpful, including moving some heavy boxes out of our dining room and into our storage closet. I suspect Aubrey will be pissed off about this, but he is going to have to suck it up. Well lots of other stuff has happened, nothing majorly bad, i'm very very tired, very very busy so I appologize for not keeping in touch better. Oh and aubreys dad will be getting here monday, we thought he was comming NEXT monday so that aubrey and i could have a few days to ourselves but i guess that will have to wait. Not much alone time or couple time lately, a lot of hospital time and getting parented time, as i am not allowed to drive for several weeks after the surgery.
very tired, tooo late to spell check grammer check etc. maybe tommorow.
tonight he weighed in at 3 lbs 7 oz, there has been a bit of confusion in the numbers we have been getting, some nurses are saying 3.blank lbs, and others are saying 3 lbs blank oz, but i'm pretty sure that the 3 lbs 7 oz is accurate for tonight. He has been steadily gaining weight durring the last 5 days and it looks like his IV might come out tommorow. He is now eating about a tablespoon of milk every 3 hours and they think that is enough for him so today they stoped giving him nutritional suppliments via IV. The big news is HOW he is eating, over the last couple of days he has started to drink from a bottle! It is still only a few feedings a day by bottle with the rest fed to him through his feeding tube, but it is a major breakthrough. The reason that he is only drinking a few (today 3) feedings by bottle is that for someone soooo soooo small and sooo sooo young it takes a lot of engergy and concentration to be able to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing all at the same time, and the more energy he spends on drinking the less he spends on growing. We are going to try to start teaching him to breast feed soon, but they are still carefully measuring everything that goes in and comes out of him.
Aubrey was afraid he might be sick wed and thursday so he hasnt been to see liam in a few days and now he is off on a buisness trip to Montery, CA for the weekend. Boy will he be suprised when he next goes with me to the hospital! Last time he was there we were very very closely supervised and not encouraged to fuss with him as his condition was a bit more delicate. Since then however the nurses have been teaching me how to take care of Liam, I've been feeding him, even helping with the tube feedings, changing his diaper, checking his temperature, last night I washed his hair and brushed it, I have also been able to start taking him out of his isolet by myself and return him to it (this is much harder than it sounds with him being so small, and having so many wires and tubes). Tommorow I'm going to learn to give him a bath, this will be a bit scary because he isn't able to regulate his own temperature much at all yet.
My mom and i have had a busy days between being at the hospital, we finally got a complicated situation involving a crib sorted out, and one will be delivered on monday. We bought a stroller, car seat, vibrating seat, swing, bedding set, super itty bitty outfits, and most of what we need. My mom did a lot of things around the apartment that are very helpful, including moving some heavy boxes out of our dining room and into our storage closet. I suspect Aubrey will be pissed off about this, but he is going to have to suck it up. Well lots of other stuff has happened, nothing majorly bad, i'm very very tired, very very busy so I appologize for not keeping in touch better. Oh and aubreys dad will be getting here monday, we thought he was comming NEXT monday so that aubrey and i could have a few days to ourselves but i guess that will have to wait. Not much alone time or couple time lately, a lot of hospital time and getting parented time, as i am not allowed to drive for several weeks after the surgery.
very tired, tooo late to spell check grammer check etc. maybe tommorow.