5:00 am
We checked Rocky’s camera and saw they’d taken off his cpap already!!!
7:00 am
We had a slow painful morning. They are starting to pull Rachel off of all the machines they had her looked up to at one point or another. At this point the last thing still in her is just her IV. But removing a lot of that support comes with some pain too. So we are taking it easy to minimize her pain, then we’re gonna go see Rocky.
9:00 am
Seeing our little boy without all the equipment on his face was so good. He’s adorable, and he cuddles right into his mom. I guess they took him off the cpap around 1am, so it was ~15 hours with it on.
The next big challenge is to get him to eat, because we can’t take him off the IV until he proves that he can regulate blood sugars without it. Which means eating. Rachel tried some breast feeding, he didn’t take it at first, then he got hiccups, which was super super cute, but made it hard to eat, so we paused, then he took a little nap.
9:45 am
While Rocky was sleeping we had a bunch of visitors come through. The nicu np and the nicu doctor came by to check on rocky, the obgyn that did the c section came by to check on Rachel. And a nurse anesthetist came to check on Rachel too. Then, unexpectedly, a couple volunteering for the church came by our nicu room and asked if we’d like to take the sacrament. So they came in and blessed and passed the sacrament to just us two and shared a small thought which was super nice.
10:00 am
Rocky woke up and started acting like he was hungry, so Rachel gave it another go, and actually got him to latch well! He ate for almost 15 minutes which is really good Doctors just want to see one more feeding like that, then we’ll start to ween him off the IV fluids currently maintaining his blood sugars. That way we can check and make sure he is able to properly regulate his sugars on breast milk. He passed out like a rock immediately after and Rachel just got to soak in the baby cuddles for almost another hour before we left him to rest alone and wheeled back to Rachel’s room.
2:00 pm
Got Rocky to eat again, he’s starting to show some really good signs of being healthy enough to leave the nicu, which is everything we’ve ever wanted. The timeline is still really dependent on him. Once he is eating consistently enough, with consistent blood sugars as we ween him off of the glucose IV, then he’ll be good to go
4:00 pm
I got to change Rocky’s diaper for the first time, he pooped a ton for his little body and the nicu nurses actually really encourage parents helping in the non medical care of their babies, so I got to do it! It was nasty, but he does have a cute lil butt. Then he went back to Rachel to eat. And was able to latch again! Rocky also got his first bath! The came in and washed him down just right in his bed. He hated it. Screamed so loud. Then they washed his hair extra hard to help prevent cradle cap and he really hated that, but it’s good for him to scream. Stretches out those lungs and makes him stronger. And it’s good for him to be clean too.
5:00 pm
We had a couple of visitors come by, Maelynn and Sadie both came to say hi to Rocky and to hang out with Rachel for a good while. Luke and Seth dropped in too. We are seriously so grateful to everyone that has helped us out with good company and good food and all the support we’ve received. I know Rachel loves it, and as the one who doesn’t get any cafeteria food, I really love it too. So thanks guys
8:00 pm
Took us a little longer to get back down there, but we made it back to see Rocky and to get him fed. He was much less hungry this time and it was a very intermittent process of getting any food in his stomach. But his blood sugars were looking great. We decided to proceed with the weening off of the glucose IV, so he’s down to like 15% of his original amount. The goal is to get him completely off and feeding well tonight. We’ll be going down to feed every three hours through the night to still be able to offer him moms milk.
9:00pm
Rachel finally got to relax and take a shower, which was frankly life changing for her. She felt so much better after getting through. Emily is our night nurse tonight, and last night too. She has been so incredible with helping Rachel and empathizing with her about the c section and all of the pains after wards. Post shower we got her changed into some PJs too, instead of the hospital gown, and that was super nice. Then she got to just relax for a minute while we waited to go back and feed Peter.
11:30 pm
We were supposed to go back and feed him at midnight, but they called us back a little early because he was awake and ready for food. Unfortunately I was off heating up some food for myself when they called, so by the time I got back to the room, grabbed Rachel, and we headed back there, he had already fallen back asleep. Which sucked because he did NOT want to wake back up to eat anything. Which sucked cause his blood sugar had dropped too, to 51. So we HAD to get some food in his stomach and some carbs in his blood. The nurse had already removed his IV because it had been oozing and leaking for a while and was throwing an occultation error. So IV was out (good) and pressure was on for him to prove he could eat (scary). After a good half hour of trying to get him to latch and drink anything, he just would not do it. He was too tired.
That’s when things got a little scary because they started explaining how normal it is for babies at his gestation to not have the energy to feed often enough to keep a good blood sugar. They explained how if he didn’t eat, he’d have to get a feeding tube inserted, and that would have to sustain him. But it also would extend his nicu stay, specifically it would extend it past the point where Lucy would be able to see him before she goes back to Idaho.
That was sad, and made Rachel pretty emotional for a lot of reasons. The nurse and doctor comforted her through it, but both separately blamed her being emotional on her hormones, instead of it being a really valid thing to be upset over which I hated.
Our best course of action then became trying a bottle. Because if he took a bottle, then he could avoid the feeding tube, and stay on track for discharge (assuming the bottle kept his blood sugars up). He would have to have enough energy to drink from the bottle though, energy he didn’t have when we tried moms milk.
So I got a turn to try and feed him with the bottle, after some initial hesitation, he went for the bottle, and actually gobbled it all right up. Which was so so relieving. He’s gonna be just fine. They were still just concerned that he took a really long time to eat everything. It was about an hour between when we started trying to feed and when he finished the bottle, and they say anything past about a half hour, and he’ll start burning more calories from trying to eat, than he’s gaining from the food itself.
