Our Jumping Off Place: Day 57, Sunday, January 9

More waiting today. But this time we are just waiting for the neonatologist to come in for one more exam and then discharge Tate. He took all his bottles fine overnight, his temperature’s been good, pooping constantly, has wet diapers. Shouldn’t be anything stopping us. They did one last blood draw and we are waiting on those results. But Tate’s never had any infection or problems so we aren’t anticipating any issues. Except he did get his second Synagis shot yesterday. That can sometimes cause a reaction, but he didn’t have any problems with the first shot.

It’s been weird being here. The nurses basically left us alone once they moved us out to the postpartum room. They would come if we called them for anything and brought us his vitamins in the morning and drew his blood. Otherwise it was just the 3 of us.

I have spoken to two different lactation consultants now who have told me that since Tate is now full term and weighs 6 pounds there’s no reason we can’t start fully breastfeeding on demand. But that’s not what any of the nurses or doctor’s say. So I’m confused. On the one hand, it makes sense to me that now that he’s bigger and older he should be able to do it. On the other, I have seen how much it wears him out and the fact that he hasn’t ever taken a full feeding yet. So I don’t know. I am sure we should play it safe and keep with the bottles. I don’t mind doing a few bottles a day, I’d just like to do more than one breastfeeding. One consultant suggested I supplement with SNS that way we know he’s getting plenty of milk, plus still gets the extra calorie supplement. I haven’t tried that in several weeks so I think that’s the route I will go once we get home. Probably still just once a day unless Tate’s pediatrician tells me different. We have to take him in early this week for his first appointment.

Tate saw and felt his first sunshine today. And that was just through the window. 55 days old and he’s never even been in the sunlight before. There were no windows in his pod in the NICU. If the weathermen are right, he’ll also get to experience snow today too!

The neonatologist came in around noon and did one last exam on Tate. Everything checked out okay and then he asked us if we had any questions. Mine, of course, was the breastfeeding. When I told him what the lactation people had been telling me and that it conflicted with the nurses, he only asked me “What do you think based on what you have seen Tate do?” Obviously I have seen how much the breastfeeding wears him out. He said, “That’s your answer.” So once a day. He was also the first one who admitted it was probably the breastfeeding that slowed us down again. No one else would ever tell me that but he said we’ve seen Tate build up on his bottles, then slow down after breastfeeding. I didn’t put him to breast yesterday because I didn’t want to do anything that might slow him down and stop us from coming home. I am not going to today either since it’s such a big day. I am sure taking him home and being in a new place will wear him out.

Dr. Samson clarified for us how exactly the “ad lib” schedule works. Tate can have up to 60 mls at each feeding. If he has an occasional feeding that he doesn’t take as much that’s okay but he should take at least 40 mls. He needs to have a minimum of 440 mls a day. He also said it could take 4-5 years for his umbilical hernia to go away!

He stressed to us, again, not to take Tate around large crowds because of cold/flu season and RSV. Don’t go to the mall, grocery store, church, etc. Keep him at home as much as possible and low stimulation till he’s bigger as well. Keep Hudson away from him if Hudson gets sick and if one of us gets sick, wear a mask. Wash our hands. So I know there are lots of you out there wanting to meet him, but it’s still going to be awhile…

One other important thing to note about preemies that I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet is that you have to track their development based on their gestational age/due date, not their birthdate. So although Tate is almost 8 weeks old, developmentally he’s still -1 week old. So he probably won’t roll over at 4 months (average age). He’ll be more like 5.5 months old before that happens. Eventually he will catch up but not till he’s older.

After Dr. Samson left we just had to pack up our stuff, feed Tate one more time and we were ready to go! They took Tate’s alarm bracelet off (He only wore it for the rooming in. He didn’t have one in the NICU.) and verified we had the correct baby by checking our badge numbers against the ID # on his footprint card. Then I had to sign the papers that it was the right baby and we could go. Oh, there was one other protocol: I had to ride in the wheelchair with Tate on my lap to leave the hospital. A little strange considering I have been out of the hospital for 7 weeks – especially since I didn’t even ride in a wheelchair when I got dismissed then!