Finally a quiet feed


     



Dad, not more pictures...


Note how happy Mom is after a great feeding experience with Aidan.



Hi Mom.

     

 
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Day 29 - Four Weeks Old

The past few days have been frustrating to say the least while waiting for Aidan to figure things out. We've spent time studying the nurses for signs of something we're missing regarding how to feed him and keep him awake the whole time. We had a nurse we'd never met watch us through a feeding last night and she told us we were doing everything right. She was a little freaked out watching him DSAT (pulse oxygen crash) and having monitor alarms go off, but she said we had it under control as much as we could. It made us feel a little better that we weren't screwing anything up, but we still felt completely out of control and helpless.

After another frustrating day of monitors screaming and Aidan not taking anywhere near how much food he takes for the nurses, finally the 9 pm feeding went splendidly. No alarms, he stayed awake for the whole thing, and he even did some breastfeeding before he took 50 ml from the bottle. Breastfeeding is a new experience for both mom and Aidan, but he took to it well tonight. Mom and Dad were about ready to jump up and down and run around the ward telling everyone when things went so well. Luckily we didn't, or they might stop thinking of us as the "sane" parents.

Some good news, the doctors ran a bunch of tests on Thursday to make sure nothing was physically wrong with him that might be causing the apnea (stop breathing) or brachycardia (drop in heart rate). Also known as A's and B's. We're happy to report his echocardiogram showed his heart is fine and blood work showed his thyroid is fine. He's a little anemic again, but all new babies, preemie and otherwise, get that way about a month after birth. That's about how long human red blood cells live and while adults are constantly replacing them, babies have to get their bone marrow to kick in about this time and start making them. They found newly formed red blood cells in his blood so we hope all will be well with that soon.

Not as good news, it's really not likely that the 7 to 10 day estimate from the nurse practitioner will be close to correct. We knew better than to listen to anyone who would predict a date more than two days ahead. It was a nice dream, but not likely. We need to have 5 consecutive days with no B's before they'll consider it, so we continue to wait.

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