Micaiah NICU Day 4. (11.25.12)

Weight: 2640g~5 lbs 13 oz
His nurse said he will continue to lose weight until he's on full feeds/no IV fluids.

Breathing: VapoTherm nasal cannula at 1 liter & 21% most of the day. He got worn out in the afternoon (had to spells of shallow breathing & desats) & had to be moved back up to 2 liters.

Feedings: 45mLs every three hours by feeding tube
Today he was able to get his first attempt at nursing since he was at 1 liter pressure. It lasted about five minutes during his tube feeding, but he did well. He can try this as often as he tolerates it & is on 1 liter pressure.
I haven't pumped enough for him to get breast milk only now that his feeds have been increased, so he's getting some formula to make up the difference. His nurse talked with the nurse practitioner about trying to avoid formula, but it was decided that we'd rather get rid of his IV fluids faster. (The other option was to increase his IV fluids to make up the difference.) He's having a hard time keeping an IV, so we want to eliminate the need for one (it's also always a risk for infection to have an IV). Some of our Vanderbilt nurses have been sweet to check on us. Scarlett texted today & said she totally agreed about the formula. That made me feel a bit better about it too.

Random :
He got moved to a big boy bed today & is wearing clothes!!

He also got moved to the "back line" in the NICU which is for less critical babies. He has new neighbors now.

His nurse today won't be back until Thursday & said she thought he'd still be there then.

I was discharged tonight. They have a low census & offered to let me "room in" for the night, but I felt like we needed to get home to Hannah Kate. It's a good thing we did because when we walked in she was hysterically crying. Mindy said she hasn't been like that the whole time we were gone, but she'd been crying & asking for Wesley for the past two hours. She had seen him twice at services, so I think that's what had caused her to start.
Once she saw us, she calmed down for the most part. She's just worn out & ready to be back in a routine with us here. I don't know how we're going to balance being with both of them. I don't feel like we need to leave her tomorrow, so I think we're going to just take her with us & take turns going in to see Micaiah.

I'm ready for us all to be home.