Our little man has decided that he is tired of being a little man. We had a visit with the pediatrician again today because he has picked up a little bit of Daddy’s cold and we wanted to make sure we stayed ahead of things. He is in good health, a little cold and is having some problems with reflux and gas but nothing serious. Last week at the same office, on the same scale with the same nurse, he weighed 5 lb 11 1/2 oz. Today (exactly 7 days later), he weighed 6 lb 12 1/2 oz. We have no worries about his ability to gain weight. I’m more concerned with making sure he doesn’t become the next Michelin Man! He’s also trying to hold his head up and roll himself over, just in case I wasn’t enough of a nervous wreck as it is.
More importantly, I have uploaded pictures!
Check them out!
Today was Finley’s first trip out of the house since we got him home. We had our first visit with the pediatrician. He now weighs 5 lbs 11 1/2 ounces and is 18 1/2 inches long. We are increasing his meals to 3 ounces and after one feeding, I can see the difference. He is sleeping much better with a full belly. The doctor said he looks fantastic and is in awesome shape. The office in general as well as the people in the waiting room concurred that he is absolutely adorable - which we already knew!
And our time with the NICU has come to an end. Finley earned all of his gold stars and was handed over to us this afternoon. He is steadily gaining weight and is now at 5 lbs and 4 oz. He is averaging 2 oz at every feeding, waking up before meals and sleeping soundly in between. He is, as we speak, grunting at me and letting me know it is getting close to time for some more food. He loves to cuddle. After he eats, he snuggles up to my chest before he falls asleep.
We have lots more pictures but Corey is in charge of downloading them for me. It will probably be tomorrow before I get them on the site.
The move is progressing. We had another weekend of work with lots of help from family and a few friends. Slowly but surely we are getting in and getting settled. I plan on taking the next couple of days to get into a rhythm with Finn that DOESN’T require daily trips to Indy. I imagine we will be having lots of visitors over the next several days and they are just going to have to ignore my lack of food and beverages and the massive number of boxes cluttering the house.
We haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, just to New Richmond where internet will not be hooked up until next week. Finley is doing very well. He has taken all of his milk from bottles for about 24 hours and that is the last thing standing between us and him coming home. In the meantime, my husband is working himself to death to have someplace to put Finn when he gets here. We are halfway done so we are sort of living in 2 houses right now. Most of the necessities are in New Richmond but we still make about a trip a day back to Crawfordsville to pick up something or other. Hopefully one more big workday and we will get the bulk of the work done (and by we I mean people other than myself since I am still recovering and not allowed to be useful).
I’ll try to keep things updated as best I can and get some new pics up soon!
We went to visit Finn today and were excited to see him completely off oxygen and no longer under bili lights. He had been put under the lights yesterday because he was jaundiced and I thought he would have to stay under for 48 hours but his bilirubin level had come down drastically since the day before. When his doctor checked on him this morning, he had his nasal cannula in his mouth and was sucking on it. We figured he was proving he didn’t need to wear it anymore. We tried a bottle feeding yesterday and he took a little bit but not much. We tried again today and he took over half before he got tired and fell asleep with his bottle in his mouth - in a very tight grip. According to his nurse he took all of his milk from the bottle for his next feeding. We are gradually increasing the feedings until he is getting about an ounce and a half every 3 hours. He is also now out of the bed with the heat lamp and on his own for heat. His temp has been staying steady. He will finish his antibiotics tomorrow. His doctor says he will be able to come home when he can maintain his body temp, sleep on his back, take a bottle and gain weight. I think we’re getting close!
I have lots more pictures we just have to charge the camera and download.
Finn has decided today that he is ready to be all better! Corey and I went down for the afternoon feeding at 11:30 and found our beautiful son without the headgear he has been strapped into. His nurse told us she had taken it off at 11:00 and he was responding well. He is still wearing a nasal cannula but it is set to room air and for a while he actually had that jammed in his mouth and was still breathing fine. We spoke with his doctor today and she thinks the pneumonia that was causing all of this is resolving. He still has to finish his antibiotics but she thinks we should try to bottle feed tomorrow. He is still a little jaundiced and if his numbers go up tomorrow he will have to go under the lights. He made my day today when I walked in and saw his little head uncovered, though!
I dropped off Finn’s breakfast this morning and got a quick update. He stayed on the room air setting on his CPAP all night and had no problems maintaining his saturation. When I saw him his breathing was not fast or labored like it has been in the past. He decided to take his IV out this morning so that had to be restarted and is in his foot now. We’re hoping that since he is a handsy little boy having his arms free will allow this IV to survive. He has a little bit of jaundice but as of right now, it doesn’t look like he is going to have to go under the lights. He did have to have a little formula last night because I’m not quite up to speed at keeping up with his feedings yet. Apparently, he just doesn’t like the formula because he spit that back up. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me to keep up with the demands of His Highness.
Corey and I have both found that it is immensely difficult to go to the NICU and try to assess how well Finn is doing because a lot of it is dependent on his mood at the moment we happen to be there. If he is fussy or has just been adjusted in someway, it can seem that he isn’t doing as well as the last time we were there. However, overall he does seem to be improving. They have decreased the oxygen on the CPAP to a level near room air and he is maintaining his oxygen saturation. He continues to do well with feeding. He gets VERY angry about dirty diapers of any kind. He doesn’t like all the tubes and hoses (who can blame him) and had gone so far as to remove his own feeding tube today. I got there in time to try to calm him down while his poor nurse put everything back together. I got to hold him for a couple of his feedings today and it made Mommy feel better to see how his vitals stabilized while I rocked him. Daddy likes to hold his hand and talk to him and take lots of pictures of Mommy holding him.
I will be discharged tomorrow and have recovered far faster than the doctors have expected. I’m trying to not let that go to my head and get overzealous. Our plan is to return to Crawfordsville tomorrow evening to regroup and get a plan together. Finn will be in the NICU through the weekend and probably into next week. In that time, Corey will be doing what he can to get the house ready to move and I will be bumming rides back to the NICU when Corey has projects to work on. I plan on spending as much time as I can with Finn since I’m basically useless to Corey in the whole moving thing. I’m hoping that having me close helps to speed Finn’s progress so we can get him home sooner.
I went home today and got my missing cable so I could transfer over the images of Finn. The first few lack a certain quality that I kinda of expect but as the day has gone by I’ve refined the settings on my camera (wish I paid more attention to Wagoner’s photo introductions in art class…f-stops, apertures…etc..) Anyway the link below will take you to the Baby Finley album on PhotoBucket, enjoy!
Just click on the picture!
Baby Finley's Album
Finn continues to do very well. He has been put on C-Pap (continuous positive airway pressure) to help boost his oxygen saturation and he is responding well. His feedings have been increased and he doesn’t seem to be having problems keeping the formula down like he did initially. They are decreasing his IV fluids and hope to stop them completely soon if he does well with feeding.
Personality wise, he seems to be turning out like Daddy. He apparently has a very short fuse and no tolerance for dirty diapers. He doesn’t like the wires and tubes and tries to pull them off. He likes to be bundled up but doesn’t like to have his feet covered. Grandpa has been telling him all about ice cream and milkshakes and he gets very excited and waves his hand around.
Corey is on his way with the necessary cable to download the pictures and I believe will get that done tonight.
Needless to say, labor was not exactly what I had planned for this weekend. Also needless to say, when labor didn’t work, a C Section was really not what I had planned for this weekend. As most people will attest, I am a woman with a plan and a schedule. I like to be in charge of all aspects of my (and pretty much everyone else’s) lives. The only word I can think of to describe this whole experience is “surreal”. Between Corey and I, we have experienced every single emotion in the spectrum over the last 40 hours or so.
On to the best of it, though - Finley.
I’ve spent 34 weeks calling my little Peanut a girl and now that Finn is here, I can’t imagine how I could have thought otherwise. He truly is perfect. He has a little trace of red to his hair and he has his Daddy’s mouth and chin. I really think he’s going to be a heartbreaker one day. He still loves the sound of Daddy’s voice and calms down almost immediately when he hears him. He’s so strong, he grabs fingers and refuses to let go. He prefers to sleep on his belly and has already mastered the pacifier. The worst part is how much time I have to spend away from him. Between trying to recover from the C Section and him being in the NICU, I have only gotten to hold him once. I have gotten to spend quite a bit of time standing next to him and holding on to him.
Like I said, Wilson’s refuse to do anything the easy way. I think that Finn heard us talking about moving and thought we were referring to him. Now our challenge is figuring out when we are going to finish moving since I am basically out of comission for awhile. I’ve also had to adjust things since it appears I am going on maternity leave 6 weeks before I planned. But, while we don’t do anything the easy way, we are really good at overcoming whatever challenges we have to deal with and making the best of things.
And in the end, nothing else really matters when I get to look at that handsome face and feel him squeeze my finger and better than that, see the way he and Corey react to each other. It may not be the way I’d planned, but I’ve honestly never been happier in my entire life.
So at 2:00am this morning(Sat, May 2nd) Sarah wakes me and says she feels funny and has some less than pleasant leakage. We talked for a bit and decided to go to the hospital just to be sure. Turns out it was a good move as Sarah was leaking amniotic fluid…ie her water was breaking! Currently she is 33 weeks and 6 days so everything should be okay with the baby upon arrival…even if we totally are not prepared! (We were expecting another 6 weeks!)
We were transfered to St. Vincent in Indy since she was early and since being her she has continued now the path of fruitfull labor. As of 2:58pm she is 4 cm and 100% effaced (sp) We will be moving into the birthing suite shortly. Overall Sarah is doing well, more freaked out by the sudden arrival of Peanut but we will adapt (in case anyone didn’t know we were going to move this weekend!)