3 Months Old - kinda
How old is your son? It shouldn’t be that hard to answer, but have you met our son? Nothing’s easy with him…
So, how old is your son?
He’s 41 weeks today.
So what does that mean?
He was born at 29 weeks.
And that’s how much?
11 weeks early; 2 months and three weeks early.
So, he’s how old now?
41 minus 29 equals 12, so he’s been around for 12 weeks.
So he’s 3 months old?
Yah, he’s 3 months old, but he was born almost 3 months early.
So, how old is your son?
41 weeks.
I can’t wait till Nathan comes home and we get to have these conversations all the time…
Happy 3 Months in the World Nathan!
D Day
We have a discharge date!!! Assuming this afternoon’s blood work is fine, Nathan is scheduled to come home on Friday. Are we ready? Ummmm… we can make it work for sure, but we’d like to feel a little more ready. It’s amazing how much stuff doesn’t get done after you spend all day at the hospital and the office. So keep us, our sanity and our amazing little boy in your prayers and we’ll let you know when we get him home.
Countdown #2 begins
Nathan had his first heart rate dip in four days this morning, so he will not be coming home on Friday. He needs to maintain his heart rate for five days in a row before he can be discharged. So we start the countdown again at midnight. His weight gain has also stalled, so maybe he's just telling us he's not quiet ready. It's disappointing, but better this morning than Friday morning I guess. So now we just keep looking forward to the day he can come home. If this morning was his last heart spell, he could be coming home on Monday.
3 Months Old - kinda
How old is your son? It shouldn�t be that hard to answer, but have you met our son? Nothing�s easy with him�
So, how old is your son?
He�s 41 weeks today.
So what does that mean?
He was born at 29 weeks.
And that�s how much?
11 weeks early; 2 months and three weeks early.
So, he�s how old now?
41 minus 29 equals 12, so he�s been around for 12 weeks.
So he�s 3 months old?
Yah, he�s 3 months old, but he was born almost 3 months early.
So, how old is your son?
41 weeks.
I can�t wait till Nathan comes home and we get to have these conversations all the time�
Happy 3 Months in the World Nathan!
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog
After 88 days in the NICU, Nathan is finally home!
If you’ve been keeping track of the details, you’ll remember that yesterday, Monday, was Nathan’s third swallow study and that with it came a bit of irony – if he’d passed, he would have spent three more days in the hospital to be observed eating unthickened milk. But he didn’t pass, so after a long day in the hospital, at 6:30pm we left Beth Israel as a family of three. Loaded down with boxes of thickener, bags of syringes, alcohol pads, refrigerated meds, needles (no fun!) and more plastic bottles than I ever thought I’d own, we’re starting a new chapter in our lives as parents.
It’s been 24 hours since Nathan moved in and I love having him home. And I hate bottle feeding. I don’t now how anyone does it. I am sure it is the right choice for plenty of families, and I recognize that Nathan’s bottles are extra complicated (mama’s milk frappe with extra powdered calories warmed to just beyond room temperature so that it actually flows through the nipple anyone?) but it’s just not for me. At least it wouldn’t be it if Nathan could swallow thin liquids. It is so hard not having the convenience and bonding of just being able to feed my baby whenever he’s hungry, and add to that often being stuck at the pump when he’s hungry so I can’t even get a bottle together for him – even having been at it for only one day, it makes me a pretty grumpy mama.
So what have we been up to in the past 24 hours, aside from expressing my growing hatred for pumping and newfound dislike of bottles? Well, Nathan’s peed on the wall twice and decided that his bassinet is for exploring and complaining about but not for sleeping, Tim splattered the kitchen in mama’s milk frappe and I’ve just tried to keep up with the boys. We’ve been making up songs, trying to remember where this or that baby item ended up and wondering where sleep fits into this parenting gig. And we’ve done a lot of just sitting around together. Being in a new place without all the dings and beeps of the NICU has been quit a change for Nathan, so he hasn’t slept much today, Maybe that means we’ll get some sleep tonight?