The Final Countdown

So I've been slacking a lot on the blogging...been really busy... so let me recap whats going on. I think you may like what I have to say :)

Saturday I had my shower. It was a wonderful time fellowshipping with the ladies of my church family. Cindy did a wonderful devotion on mothers of the Bible. It was so good to see everyone and get a chance to catch up. Seeing as when we do get to church we have to take off pretty fast to get back to the hospital for me to pump/ feed the baby (sometimes we even have to leave early). Eli got lots and lots of wonderful stuff. We are soo soo blessed. Here are some pictures (photo credits go to Catty)

Auntie Kiki 

Ignore the weird look on my face an focus on the beautiful quilt Carey made. 

On Saturday the doctor said we need to get 48 hours of full feeds and then they start a 7 day count down for discharge. At that point he wasn't at full feeds and the doctor said oh it will be a few days before he gets there, i'd say he will be discharging in 10-14 days

Sunday morning we get there and low and behold he was 24 hours of full bottle feeds. Monday, it was very icy, so icy we couldn't get out of our driveway and Jon said we couldn't go anywhere. You know its bad when Jon says we can't go anywhere. *Flashback to huricane Irene and us being the only people driving down the Merit Parkway because the roads were "fine"* So I call to get an update and we are 48 hours of full bottle feeds. Staying home was good, I spent a lot of time making some phone calls getting a pediatrician and stuff like that. 

When I finally get to the hospital and talk to his nurse, we find out she talked to the doctor and the protocol is that once the baby is 48 hours of full bottle feeds, they look back and find when his last significant desat was and go 7 days from that date. A significant desat is a desat below 75% that occurs any time besides when he is feeding. He now gets to be off the monitor when he feeds, because we all desat a little when we eat so it doesnt count. So his last significant desat was on December 6th aka LAST FRIDAY 

SAY WHAAATTTTTT!?!?!?!?

So that means as long as he continues to behave himself, he is going home on Saturday!!!!!!!  He won't be having his hernia repair for at least a few months. So he gets to come home! So we are scrambling to get everything set. His room is kind of a disaster right now but that will be mostly fixed tomorrow. Leave it to Eli to be ahead of schedule....

 Jon has to work this weekend but after that he has a week of vacation which is kind of perfect how that all worked out. God is so good. So please pray that everything works out as far as the discharge plan and that we have a smooth transition home. Also, we are having some issues with the truck so pray for that all to get resolved and that Jon will be able to make the repairs quickly so he can spend as much time as possible with the baby.  Because how could you possibly want to be away from this cuteness for very long

Thursday/Friday

Thursday Eli got his eyes and ears checked. The boy can here, we already knew that but its still good to be reassured

This is what it looked like, he slept through the whole thing. His eyes look good as well, still some immaturity but he is only 37 weeks gestation. He will follow up with a pediatric optometrist in three weeks. ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) is something that is very concerning for preemies. Basically having too much oxygen or apnea can cause disorganized growth of blood vessels of the retina. This can lead to scarring and retinal detachment. It can cause blindness. Back in the day,  they would flood the isolettes with oxygen instead of using a nasal canual which caused wayy to much oxygen and led to blindness. This is how Stevie Wonder became blind (he was a preemie).  Anyways he hasn't been on much oxygen at all during his whole stay so he's looking good so far.

All the tests really tired the boys out.......

Today has been great. He drank all of his bottles so far..Anxious to see how he does over night. Weighing in at 6lbs 1oz

Got our Christmas tree set up. Tomorrow is my baby shower with my church family. Very excited for that!!

Every Christmas Jon's Grandmother would give him a Lennox Christmas ornament. He has quite the collection. This is one of my favorites

Jon's mom (Gramma) made our tree skirt and stockings. She embroidered the nativity on the skirt. I love it, it is so beautiful. Will put pictures of the rest of it later

 

 Can't wait for Eli's stocking!

Bottles..Bottles..and more Bottles!

So I get to the NICU this morning about half an hour before its time for Eli to eat. I take a look at him in his crib and he has wiggled to the bottom of his crib, pulled out his NG tube and is wiggled into his swaddle. He is wide awake just looking around with his normal I'm hungry face. Not upset or anything just perfectly content and snuggled up waiting for breakfast. So because his tube was out, his nurse says ok Eli, sink or swim time..I'm not putting the tube back in. He took a whole bottle no problem, then we spent the rest of the morning cuddling like normal. At noon, she said ok Eli, put your rally diaper on time to take a bottle again. He did pretty well, out of the 52cc's he left 7. At three, he got the tube put back in, just in-case he got too tired. He left 2cc's but we count that as a whole bottle and at 6 he did the same. Hopefully he is turning a corner here and does well tonight.

He's still having some desats that he needs to get over. But this week he's 36 weeks gestation and the doc says between now and 38 weeks is when this whole thing really comes together as far as suck swallow breathe. Because he's a "wimpy white boy" this may take longer. I'm not sure if I've blogged about the wimpy white boy thing yet., but apparently a white boy is the worst kind of preemie patient to have. They take the longest to get out of the NICU, because they are a little ahem...lazy...but don't tell Eli that, he is working so hard! This isn't something that the nurses say just at our hospital either. I've been reading blogs of other preemies boys and they all have mentioned something about "wimpy white boy" problems. Very interesting....

But anyways we hope to be home relatively soon. Though home means Eli does not leave the house until flu/RSV season is over in April (except to go to doctors appointments) Also, he can't have very many visitors either. Just as a heads up, if you are hoping to come visit, as much as we want to see you, it still will probably be awhile. We will have to see what the doctors say. From what I'm reading from other blogs, the docs recommend that the next flu/RSV season he doesn't leave the house as well (that's October-April). But let's not get ahead of ourselves!

crazzy eyes!!

Holding daddy's hand and looking at him

all that bottle drinking is very tiring 

Not Much to Report...But Cute Pics!

Hi all! Not too much to report. Baby is doing well, really needs prayers to build up his stamina. He drinks his bottles but gets to tired too finish the last few cc's. His parents need prayers for patience because we are soo readdyy to get out of the hospital!!!

Will get his eyes checked again on Thursday. He go to spend a lot of time with Grampy last night, he loved it. Gramma wasn't feeling well and stayed at the house and set up the Christmas tree for us.

Last night the nurse took out his NG tube to give his nose a break in between a feeding..it was soo fun to get to see him au natural.

 Today while  I was pumping, his nurse snuck in and put a santa hat on him...way too cute...

5lbs 11oz tonight! Big boy!