22 Days in the NICU 9/2/10

In the words of Dr. DeMarie this morning during rounds, "This is Master Lincoln. He's just cruisin' along. You'd never be able to tell he was a 29-weeker." I just loved that he called him Master.

Link weighed in at 4 pounds 7.2 ounces today! That's a whole 2 ounces more than yesterday! I guess I don't have to worry about getting that expensive carseat that can take babies under 5 pounds anymore. At this rate, he'll be well over 5 pounds when he's discharged. Unfortunately, the weight alone wont get him home. He had two great days of nursing, and then today he was just fussy the whole day and didn't want to have anything to do with the "nip drip." Has he caught on to the fact that he can get 38 ml of milk every three hours with zero effort through his tube??? Let's hope that he'll perform a little better tomorrow. It is my birthday, afterall.

My friend from church, Katie Willis, came to visit for a couple hours today. Not only did she drive all the way down and bring me a yummy lunch, she left her own two month-old with a babysitter so she could do it! Now that's a good friend! It was fun to chat with her and introduce her to Link's world. Katie also has put in some time in a NICU as her little one had to have a couple surgeries shortly after birth. It's nice to be able to chat with those that have shared experiences. Most parents get to go through an extremely different process in the first months of their babies lives. It's hard to let go of the expectation of normalcy and deal with all the trauma, and chatting with others who can empathize is helpful. I'm starting to wonder about what I can do in the future to help other premie moms to cope with their unique situations. There is a parent support group at this NICU, and though I've had little interaction thus far with them, the president remembers Lincoln's name when I see her on occasion and asks me how he's doing. That always impresses me since there are at least 15 or so other babies in the unit currently. They also gave us an adorable little hand-knit blanket and hat for him. Throughout this whole process we really have been the recipients of the goodness of others.

20-21 days Aug. 31st and Sept. 1st

Sorry, I'm slacking! Things are going great! Link has been labeled the "Stealth Baby" of the NICU 'cause he's cruising right along, bypassing all the things that could be wrong with him at his early age! The last couple days we've made some great breakthroughs in nursing. I was introduced to what is called the "football hold" and it has made all the difference. Don't get me wrong, he's not fully feeding, but we're making improvements. The nurse today said that she predicted he'd probably be home in 3 weeks if he kept going at this rate!!!! SOOOO exciting! Originally they told us Oct. 22nd (his due date) and 3 weeks from now is a whole month before that!!! I'm trying not to get my hopes up...but can you blame me? YAY!

Additionally, I feel like we're bonding a lot more with Link. He seems to love the time that he's awake and hanging out with us. He looks at me in the eyes and just generally seems happy and more at ease. He responds much better to touch now, and I feel like I can hold him and kiss him like a normal little baby. We're moving on up!

Oh, and today Link weighed in at a whopping 4 pounds 5 ounces! He's gaining so quickly!

19 Days!!! 8/30/10

8/29/10 Day 18

Today Lincoln reached 4 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day #17 8/28

Lincoln is up to 1810 grams today, which, by my calculation is 3 pounds and 15.8458712 ounces!!! Maybe he'll be up to 4 pounds tomorrow! So exciting! I spent six hours with Link this afternoon, two care times (with 2 poopy diapers), 2 kangaroo care times, 2 nursing attempts, and 2 pumping sessions. Link just loves to nuzzle! He's also been bumped up to 36 ml of milk every three hours, so I imagine he'll keep growing like a little weed!

I'm trying to figure out if he has features that look like mine or Brent's, but he just seems too little to have locked into his looks! I think he's got my nose, and obviously he's got Brent's extra dark brown hair...but other than that, I don't know! What do you think?

8/27 Day 16

Today was another good day with our little man. Lincoln is up to 1770 grams...which I think is nearly 4 lbs. Now that he's not having his temperature controlled, we wrap him up like a burrito (Brent calls him a torpedo), and it's so adorable!

Today a harpist came in to the NICU and played for an hour or so! It was so cool! The heavenly, soothing music was perfect for all those little angels! I talked to her as she was leaving and found out that she comes a couple times a week (though she's been away on vacation for awhile, which is why I've not seen her before) and has been for years. She was born here at St. Joe's and in the NICU as an infant for 63 days! I was so impressed at her desire to continue to give back to the unit that gave her life! She's probably about my age.

I met with a lactation specialist today to get some tips on introducing Link to nursing. One idea she gave me was to soothe him with my pinky on the roof of his mouth rather than the binky. The binky is good because he practices sucking, but my pinky is better because he gets the smell and taste of me, plus I can get a feel for how he's developing his little mechanism. I'm getting frustrated because feeding is the only thing left he has to do...but it's the one that takes the longest, the most patience, and the most development on his part. Even some full term babies have serious problems with it. Let's hope that he's as precocious in this as in everything else.

It's funny....had Lincoln still been in the womb, he'd only be at 32 weeks now. I'd have 8 more weeks of pregnancy in front of me! I guess, if you try to count the blessings in a rough circumstance, one could look on the bright side and say "Hey, I gained 20 lbs in my pregnancy and lost 15 of them all in one day!" I suppose I would have had a lot more work to do had I given birth in October! Now, it's Link that has to do all the work, and sometimes I just feel so miserably guilty for that. I know I shouldn't. We have no known cause for his early birth. As far as we know, I did everything right. I ate well. I kept up mild exercise. I was getting good sleep and not stressing about anything (at least since school had been out) and I've never done drugs or alcohol a day in my life. One could theorize and wonder, and the doctors even did tests to see if it was an infection or something, but, at the end of the day, only the Lord knows the big plan.

15 days of life and a BIG BOY bed!

Lincoln got to move into a big boy bed today!!! He now can control his own temperature so no longer needs the isolette! Yay! No more changing his diaper through two little holes! He also gained 36 grams since yesterday! Brent was able to escape a couple times during his work day to come over and visit Link and I at St. Joe's. We love our little guy soooooo much!!! It's funny, today I had someone tell me "Oh, don't worry, you have 18 years to get sick of Lincoln." My thought was just how I would love nothing more than to just cuddle with him ALL DAY LONG!