Day 7, Saturday November 20

I pushed myself a little too hard on my first day home.  Well, I wasn't actually home at all which was the problem.  We went back over to see Tate at 6 am Saturday and spent an hour with him before they closed the NICU from 7-9 for shift change.  When we left we went to get Hudson to take him to breakfast to do something normal for him.   Thankfully he slept in till about 8:30 so Jamie and I napped at my parents house till he got out of bed.  We ended up making it out for more of a brunch by 11.  We can definitely tell Hudson is thrown by everything going on because of his behavior.   He's not awful but definitely pretty quick to talk back or yell or get upset about what is going on.  Plus you can tell he's just tired all the time.  We talked about it last night and realized that we are just going to have to be more patient with him because  his whole world has turned upside down in the last week too.  Differently than ours, but still upside down.  The good thing is it will help him a lot having me back home now and getting to sleep at home in his own bed more.  Still not sure exactly what his new schedule is going to be, definitely still won't be as much time at home or with me as he's used to.  But he'll adjust.  Then I reminded Jamie we'll probably go through it all again when we bring Tate home.  But I think that transition will be easier for him since Tate and I both will be HOME.  Already dreaming of that day....

When I came in to see Tate he actually lifted his head up and tried to turn to look at me in response to my voice.  He didn't lift it very high or get it turned very far but that's the first time I have seen him try.  His bilirubin was back down to 4.5 and when I came back to see him in the afternoon he was out of the UV light.  The nurse said he won't have to go back under them if he can maintain the lower levels.  Which also means we should be able to hold him a little more.  When they have the lights they want them under them 24/7 so we could only hold him for 2 30 minutes sessions a day. If he doesn't have to go back under the UV they should allow us to hold him more than just 2 times a day.  His weight stayed the same today.

Tate had his first minor setback with eating today.  When they checked to make sure his food was digested at 9 am he had some "green stuff" in his tummy.  So they did an x-ray and determined it was gas but the doctor decided he needed a suppository in case he was constipated and to hold off on his feedings until 6 pm tonight.  At 3:30 the nurse came to give him his suppository and he had taken care of business all by himself.  Had his biggest dirty diaper yet and it was a big one - for him anyways!  Still mostly meconium, he hasn't gotten all that out yet but I am sure that one helped!  

After that he got pretty fussy and squirmy.  I think because he was hungry and he knew it!  He chewed on his hands a lot and smacked his lips a few times.  He's also started grabbing onto the wires and cords for all his machines and he pulled his feeding tube out 10 times today!   So they finally put some little mittens over his hands to try to keep him from pulling on stuff.  But at 9 pm they resumed his feedings and he was a much happier guy all night long.  You'll see some of his squirming in the video.  You can hear all the alarms going off in the background too.  It happens a lot, but thankfully they are rarely Tate's - and lately if they have been it's cause he pulled something loose!

After we took Hudson to breakfast I wanted to go to the store to get a bag that I could use to carry to the NICU every day for my books, purse, laptop, pump stuff, etc.  Jamie didn't think I should but mom and I went anyway.  Then we went to Barnes and Noble so I could look for a devotional book and then we of course ran into someone we knew so we talked to them for awhile about everything that was going on.  Then I went home and showered and mom took me back up to the NICU while Jamie and Hudson took a nap.  I spent a couple hours at the NICU just hanging out.  They have lactation rooms I can go to when I need to pump and I took a nap in there for a little bit after pumping, but otherwise spent the time sitting in with Tate.  At 6 Jamie came and picked me up and we went to Wesley to see my new niece, Ashley Grace!!  Wesley has a parking garage and then it's a  pretty big hospital.  We were looking for a wheelchair but never found one and I ended up walking all the way up to her room.  We didn't stay for too long there - long enough for me to pump again and hold her for just a few minutes.  Then we went to dinner.  I was moving really slow by this point, exhausted and hurting.  Jamie found a wheelchair and wheeled me (and Hudson) out to the car.  By the time we finished dinner I was really exhausted and really hurting. Mom and Dad took Hudson again for the night cause Jamie was going back up to the hospital and I got a ride home from my aunt.  I couldn't get to my bed fast enough - literally and figuratively.  Every move hurt.  Plus my milk really came in yesterday evening so I ended up pumping every 2 hours all night long to keep myself comfortable.  But I won't complain about that - I am already worrying I won't have enough milk when he gets out of the NICU... 

Jamie took all next week off of work and his plan is to spend nights up at the NICU as much as he can.  He stayed there till 4 am. He held him and although Tate slept the entire time he smiled 12 times in his sleep!  At Tate's 3 am feeding he had only digested 1 ml of the 7 he had been fed at midnight.  The doctor had them feed the 6 back to him and then check again at 6 am.  So Jamie finally came home and went to bed and I called this morning to see how the rest of the night went.  At 6 am he had digested all of his food so they were going to feed him as regular on Sunday and even increase to 8 ml at this noon feeding.. 

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