Kieran's first day

As soon as I was able to get up the morning after Kieran's birth, I wanted to be wheeled to the NICU. The preceding picture was taken as I held him, right before he got his various tubes back on. You can see he has a ton of blond hair! He also has blond eyelashes and eyebrows. Josh and I were in shock about how much hair he has for his gestational age.

He then got his "gear" on so I could hold him.

First time holding him.

He had a busy first day in the NICU as his nurse practitioner and doctor tried to get him settled in on various machines and basically tried to assess everything he was going to need. The NICU doctor told Josh and I that sometimes babies get worse before they get better - that they get sicker the 24-48 hours after they're born. After we spoke, I was wheeled to the NICU and able to hold him, so that was a big blessing! He was hooked up to various oxygen sources - sometimes a mask, sometimes a nasal cannula, and was on a low amount of O2 and mostly room air for the majority of the day. He had a feeding tube placed in his mouth and started to receive caffeine to stimulate lung activity. There were plans to start feeding him my pumped milk in the next day or two once he got settled and relaxed. The nurses reported that he was very agitated during procedures and needed more O2 during those times. His birthday was mostly just spent trying to get Kieran comfortable and adjusted and figure out what exactly he was going to need. I was able visit him with a second time to do skin-to-skin contact with him later in the afternoon - what an absolute blessing to feel his tiny body against my skin! I look forward to many more days of that :)

The rest of the day I spent trying to relax, rest and recover. The magnesium sulfate made me feel like a zombie, tired and slow, but I felt I was getting better. My BP slowly inched back down through the day and my labs came back much improved. I started pumping breastmilk for Kieran - the pump and I are going to be constant companions as I work to provide the large majority of his nutrition!