Day 3

Last night and this morning have been much more mellow for Kieran, thank goodness. I spoke with his NICU doctor today and there are plans to extubate him/take him off the ventilator this evening and get him back on the O2 mask - YAY! They're pretty sure he'll tolerate it just fine, since we wanted him to relax yesterday and he's been doing just that. He is getting his second dose of neoprofen today and one more tomorrow for the heart flap that was loose and by Sunday we should know if that's resolved itself. He has been getting artificial surfactant - a gooey, thick medicine through his trachea to help with lung development - and he will be getting that one more time today and after that he should be able to make some on his own. He is also having a renal ultrasound today to check his enlarged kidney, which we were first aware of at his 20 week ultrasound, so we'll see if it's still enlarged and if there is anything needing to be done there. Lastly, today is his last day of phototherapy for jaundice.

Our little guy resting this morning. He is now 30 weeks gestationally.

All in all, he is doing much better today. They didn't want us to hold him yesterday due to all his distress, but I was able to put my hands in his isolette - they say preemies prefer pressure rather than softly rubbing, so I spent a long time with my hands in the case - one hand on his sweet, downy head, and another hand on his little legs & feet. I forgot to ask if we can hold him today, but I think when he is off the ventilator tonight we will most likely be able to try again. They have plans to start him on my breastmilk Sunday, which is very exciting! My milk has started to come in today and my new close friend the breastpump is due to arrive at our house this afternoon :) I already have quite a few bags of milk in the NICU freezer and I look forward to providing many more. Each time I pump I look at pictures of Kieran and I cannot wait for the day he's ready to nurse - they said we can probably try around 32-33 weeks.

Lastly, I'm being discharged today! Josh has plans to get me home and settled and then we'll figure out a nice routine for visiting Kieran daily. I am hoping I can go every morning for a few hours while the doctors are there and then Josh or Josh and myself can visit at night as well. I will of course miss being so close to Kieran, but I cannot wait to get home to my comfy bed to get a little bit of sleep amidst the pumping.

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!