Doing well!!

Bennett has been doing great since we brought him home! We only had a few feeding issues the first two days where he would at times refuse to eat. He has now fallen into a pretty good eating pattern, eating well every 3-4 hrs. He lets me know when he is hungry! I think it helps we found a bottle that he takes very easily.

Nursing, however, isn't going well. He much prefers the bottle and the only time I can get him to latch on now is if he isn't too hungry. My milk supply is also decreasing dramatically for some reason, so I've upped my pumping to every 2 hours during the day and after B eats at night. I think I need to rent a hospital-grade pump though. I definitely need to eat more - haven't had much time for that!!

The home oxygen is a real pain in the butt, but I'm learning how to deal with it. His monitor is also pretty clunky, but I'm dealing with that too. We've only had one alarm thus far - for apnea tonight. It said he wasn't breathing, but I was holding him at the time, and he felt like he was breathing to me, so maybe it was just shallow so the monitor didn't pick it up (they said that could happen). He hadn't had an apnea alarm in the NICU for at least 3 weeks before he came home, so I'm thinking it was shallow breathing.

We took him to the Pediatrician on Monday. He was 6 lbs 3 oz, and just over 18 inches then. Our doc is pretty much going to keep everything status quo with the NICU's discharge instructions for now. He goes back on the 22nd for preemie labs (checks everything like calcium, iron levels, electrolytes, etc), and may adjust his meds/feedings then. She wants to keep him on the 30 calorie/oz feeds until he reaches the full-term baby growth chart. That is a ways to go considering he's only on the 25th percentile growth curve on the PREEMIE growth chart now, lol! So, basically she wants him to get up to near what his weight would be if he were a full term baby at his actual age.

I'm taking Bennett for another eye exam with his opthamologist tomorrow to check for Retinopathy of Prematurity (hasn't had any signs of it thus far!!!). Then I have to take him soon to see the Pulminologist at Children's National Hospital. We're supposed to have home nursing visits too, but for some reason they haven't called me yet to set that up. My case manager is checking on that for me, since the home nurse was actually supposed to come today!

Carter is adjusting very well to having his baby brother home. He's had some momentary bouts of jealousy when company was oohing and ahhing over the baby and he felt neglected. But, for the vast majority of the time, he's been great. He loves all over Bennett and jumps at every chance to help out with him. He's very gentle with him too. He's a bit loud (isn't every 3 y/o?), but it doesn't seem to bother Bennett who is used to a noisy atmosphere from the NICU.

Here are some pics of Bennett's first few days home!

Carter will go over to where B is sleeping every 10 mins or so and let me know he's ok and still sleeping :)


Daddy feeding Benentt


Doing tummy time!! I'm not quick enough to get it on camera, but this kid is freakishly strong and can hold his head all the way up already!!!


Loving on his baby!


Comparing shoe sizes



Passed out after eating
Snug as a bug in his snuggle nest


Bennett's first "outfit" - this is newborn size!!!! I think he'll be out of the preemie sizes very soon!


Starting at his Lolo intently (he did this for about 10 mins tonight!)


I apologize in advance if I don't update the blog much now that Bennett is home. Needless to say, he is really your quintessential newborn (his adjusted age is 0 weeks on Friday!), and keeps me very busy! I feel like all I do is feed, burp, change, and put him to sleep! Ok, I do a lot of pumping and bottle washing in the middle too, and I'm trying to squeeze in time to do work for work on top of it all! Momma needs to get herself organized!