"Here at the NICU we don't potty train, we garbage train"

So I'm back to spending my days with the baby. I missed him sooo much, it was so so so good to hold him this morning. Still not too much luck with nursing him, however we get to try twice a day now and the lactation consultant gave me some tips and things to try. I'm getting impatient, especially seeing as the doctor was like as soon as we get the feedings down we can discharge him. However as  his Auntie Amanda reminded me today, its awesome that he's latching on at this age and the suck swallow breathe thing is a lot of work for him. He'll get there.

So we spent the day cuddling. At 6 the nurse came in to steal him from me to weigh him. So she brings in the scale and strips him nakey, even no diaper and puts him on the scale. I'm in the back room getting ready to pump when I hear the nurse scream ELI!!. So I come rushing out of the back room and three or four other nurses come running into the room. What I see is a bunch of poop on the floor and the nurse holding my naked baby over the garbage can while he continues to poop into it. He's not crying he just has this look on his face that is like what's going on. Apparently the nurse had carried him naked over to the sink and that's when he pooped on the floor so she rushed over to the garbage can to have him finish the job. So the poor baby has poop like all over so he has to get his security alarm thing taken off his foot and gets a quick sink shower. All the nurses are in the room laughing at the nurse that this happened too and telling their poop stories. And as usual Eli is just looking around not crying just waiting for his dinner. Oh he weighs 4 lbs 5oz (before the poop) maybe a little less now.

his new crib, you can barely tell hes in there but he is

favorite past time: trying to pull out the NG tube

Being Sick Sucks

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes being sick is kinda ok. My Opa used to give me cough drops and call them "candy" so I'm kind of addicted to them. So any chance where I can eat cough drops and not get judged is cool with me. Plus you get to sleep/ watch tv all day and no one can complain. But when being sick means that you can't go see your baby for dayssss and you worry that you might have gotten him sick, which means possibly adding days to your already long NICU stay,  IT.IS.THE.WORST.THING.EVER.

Eli is doing great.  He's in an open air bassinet, no more isolette(which I haven't seen). He weighs 4lbs 3oz, is getting 38cc's of milk every three hours,and is still doing well with no respiratory support. The doctor says we just have to get him eating and we're good. Today he spent the whole day with his Grampa(including a lot of cuddle time), which I know he loved. His Omie was there in the morning but then she spent most of the day taking care of me, cooking a yummy dinner, and catching up on neglected housework. Daddy has been working like crazy but he is at the hospital every day right after work, to send me pictures and get some cuddle time in. Gramma and Grampy are coming down tomorrow. Hopefully I feel good enough to go in at least later in the afternoon.

How cute is he!?!?!? Miss him soo much :(

4 lbs!

We hit four pounds this evening. What a chunker! He's doing well with the breathing still, hopefully he'll get into a big boy bassinet tomorrow or Saturday. He's staying awake longer too which is cool. He's actually awake when I read to him sometimes. For a little while, he had his NG tube out to give his nose a break. So he had no tubes in at all! It was very cool. That's all I have for now!

 proof

One More Tube Gone!

Today we lost the nasal canula. Not very successful on the nursing, he was more interested in trying to pull out his NG tube and looking around. Behind Mr. Baby's ears are very stinky, so he got them scrubbed. Beside that he's been eating and pooping well. Had a consult with plastics, they think his boo boo should heal fine. Spent most of the day sleeping and cuddling.  He is the cutest little baby ever.....

giving daddy a hug

One Month!!!

Mr. Baby is one month old today!! Ahh can you believe it!?!?! He had his ultrasound of his head yesterday, it was negative, no bleeds. Tried to breastfeed yesterday and he pretended like he had no idea what was going on. Silly guy! 

Today I didn't feel well, had a little bit of a sore throat. So I had to stay out of the hospital, just in case I'm getting sick. I feel about the same, maybe a little better. No stuffy nose, no cough. So I think I'll be good tomorrow. So I spent the day in bed sleeping (and pumping) and doing some online shopping. Christmas is coming, Eli needs to be all decked out for the holidays! Yes, I will probably blog about Eli's holiday wardrobe :)

 So Eli and daddy spent the day together. Daddy held him for 6 hours, which is probably more than he's held him since he was born combined. I'm kind of a baby hog. He weighs 3lbs 14oz. Doing good overall. Will have a consult with plastics sometime this week for the boo boo on his head. 

Just for some perspective...

birthday 

1 week

2 weeks

3 weeks

1 month!!

 love this pic

Sunday

Today was a BIG day for Eli. I came in, in the morning and the nurse was like I have a plan for Eli, he's going to get a bath and a new isolette. I said ok sounds good, he had a bath on Thursday and he liked it. So the nurse says ok well we can still do the bath or you can try to breast feed  but he can't do both, it'll be too much for him. So clearly I'm like lets try breastfeeding!!!

So being a preemie, the baby doesn't have the suck, swallow, and breathe thing down pat. This whole thing doesn't really develop until about 35 weeks. Right now hes 33 weeks and one day. However he is showing lots signs that he is ready to start breastfeeding: rooting, sucking, sticking his tongue out. So when you start trying to breastfeed, they don't really expect too much right away. They also expect the baby to possibly require oxygen and that he can choke or even stop breathing and turn "funny colors". This is all normal, but also its normal for a baby to latch on right away, do well for a few days and then stop. So today he tried it out for about 15 minutes. He latched on pretty well did get some milk.. Spent some time just kinda looking around but did well and didn't turn any funny colors.  So now he gets to try every day, per dr's order.

Eli got to see all four of his grandparents today. He was especially glad to get some cuddle time with Gramma and Grampy. Grampy even read him a book. We are so thankful for our church family who brought us food from the Thanksgiving fellowship dinner. And for Leslie, who made us a few dinners and sent some super cute baby clothes. Going to try to get him in one of the outfits tomorrow or the next day :)

He weighs 3 lbs 12oz and getting 34cc's of milk every three hours. Starting to get where they are saying he will be to big for preemie clothes very soon!

Saturday

Today was a good day. Baby hung out with his Omie and Grandpa most of the day. He's getting 32 ccs of milk now and taking gigantic poops. Having some desats so the O2 had to be put up to 1.5 L but overall a good day. Spent some time cuddling with both Grandpa and Omie. Omie and I went out and got him some outfits for Christmas. Super cute!!!  Looking forward to seeing Gramma and Grampy tomorrow and hopefully getting some cuddle time with them. I'm tired this was short, here are the pics...

Eli getting his lunch