Look who's wearing clothes.Nicholas is wearing clothes today. They want him to start regulating his temperature on his own rather than his isolette's temperature adjusting to his. He has on a preemie sleeper and it is too big. When I look at his clothes they look so tiny and that they would be too small for him but they aren't. His nurse was creative with his hat today and made it into a headband to use to attach the strap of his breathing machine. He looks like he is wearing little baby workout gear.
They are increasing his milk to 8 ml an hour and he has been tolerating his feeds well. He is about 3/4 of the way to full feeds. Mommy sucked it up and got up to do the middle of the night pumping to see if that helps with milk production. He is eating more than I make right now so my frozen supply will run out eventually.
His urine output is good and he had a very large stool according to his nurse. He is doing really well.
His room in the NICU was a very busy place today. A lot of the babies that were in there when Nick was born have graduated to less critical rooms and there are a lot of new micro preemies in there. It made me realize how far he has come. He has a new neighbor who was just born and is on the oscillator. That is all I could tell because they blocked it off. But the mother was coming back with different family members and had to pass me holding Nicholas each time. Seeing the look of sadness, fear, and jealousy as they passed me reminded me that just 10 short weeks ago that was us. I remember in the very beginning one of the nurses told us that they get one very critical baby and one that doesn't require a lot of attention. Nick is the one that doesn't' require a lot of attention. I noticed that his nurses have been with their other babies a lot more lately but it didn't dawn on me until today that Nicholas is their easy baby. The days of the "why us", and "what ifs" have been replaced with acceptance and each day is another miracle and one step closer to Nicholas going home. He still has a long way and another surgery to go but he has accomplished so much in 10 weeks and I am so proud of him.
Yes, Nicholas has made huge steps toward recovery. In the same way that you are proud of your little guy, I am proud of both of you, Corinne and Mark, for hanging in there and becoming the parents that Nicholas needs you to be. What an awesome little family you have become!
ReplyDelete