This morning I arrived to find E completely buried in his blankets. His whole head was covered and I freaked a little (ok a lot) – I know that he is monitored but I really don’t want him to be so covered that he feels like he can’t breathe. I asked his nurse for that shift, to please not allow that to happen again. I know she won’t listen (thinks I’m neurotic) but next shift is Gabrielle and she is so in love with E that she wont allow anything “bad” to happen to him.
We put E on my breast again and he had one or two sucks. He sucks far better on the dummy but I am sure that we’ll get there. The sucking reflex is only learned at 34-35 weeks and he is only technically 33 weeks and 4 days.
When E is awake he is so alert and active. All his nurse notes comment on this. Yesterday one of the nurses gave him some black and white patterns to stick on the side of his cot. He looks at these patterns and is so aware of everything. He really seems to be a happy baby (and so intelligent and handsome).
At one time during the day the hernia was looking a bit better but unfortunately it is quite big again – still not causing him any distress.
Good news again. E is now on three hourly feeds and cares – a big step forward. Level 1 babies are on three hourly feeds and level 1 babies are getting ready to go home!! He is now tolerating 29ml every three hours and three hourly cares mean we get to cuddle more often. He has also moved to two cuddles a day.
We put E on my breast again and he had one or two sucks. He sucks far better on the dummy but I am sure that we’ll get there. The sucking reflex is only learned at 34-35 weeks and he is only technically 33 weeks and 4 days.
When E is awake he is so alert and active. All his nurse notes comment on this. Yesterday one of the nurses gave him some black and white patterns to stick on the side of his cot. He looks at these patterns and is so aware of everything. He really seems to be a happy baby (and so intelligent and handsome).
At one time during the day the hernia was looking a bit better but unfortunately it is quite big again – still not causing him any distress.
Good news again. E is now on three hourly feeds and cares – a big step forward. Level 1 babies are on three hourly feeds and level 1 babies are getting ready to go home!! He is now tolerating 29ml every three hours and three hourly cares mean we get to cuddle more often. He has also moved to two cuddles a day.
Cuddled with M again – just a short one but he does so love his daddy’s hairy chest and melodic singing voice. In fact when I hold him he looks for chest hair (Thank God he doesn’t find any) and seems quite annoyed that all I have is these annoying nipples which I keep forcing into his mouth.
Damn annoying nipples...too funny!
ReplyDeleteSo lovely to hear how he is improving so quickly! When you say cares, does that just mean cuddles and getting him out of the crib? Also - are you allowed to change his nappy or do the nurses do this?
ReplyDeleteCares are basically when we we changed his nappy. When he was just tiny this was only twice a day as he would lose too much oxygen when he was handled. More frequent cares meant more robust baby who could deal with all the "intrusion". Needless to say the cares involved a teeny hug but we were encouraged not to handle him too often.
ReplyDeleteThe hospital staff were amazing in encouraging us to do the nappy changes etc. This was so important because really it is hard to feel like a parent and an important part of the process when you are just a bystander in a very medical environment.
Thanks for reading
xxxx