NICU update - day 8

More and more of Gabe's personality is showing. Dude does not like to be hungry, but he's a lazy nurser. I can't really blame him though. He gets both bottles and nurses, and the bottles are much easier to suck from...that and he's kinds of had a difficult start to life. When he's on the breast, he gets tired and will give up. As such, I think he's going to start getting breast milk chasers after he nurses. I honestly do not mind. He needs to gain weight consistently to be discharged so we will do what we have to do. Apparently, his weight went down yesterday a little. I'm not concerned simply because he had six poopy diapers. Input = output. But Gabe is going to have to learn that when I offer him my breast that he needs to eat. I don't think it will take long for him to learn, but we will wait until we get home. Ahhh, home. We are close, so close I can almost taste it!

UPDATE: today's nurse insisted on the milk chaser, which I honestly didn't think necessary because Gabe was OUT. I expressed some milk onto his lips/in his mouth and he didn't smack or appear interested. But, like I said above, I will play along because I will do anything to get him home. Well, I gave him about 10 cc's (because he will take that much at any time from the bottle - it is so easy to do!). Later, the nurse told me that he got fussy and took more for a totals of 30 cc's (that is an ounce) but it was already half way to his next feeding. So when it came time to nurse him at the following feeding, he didn't budge. Little man was completely out. I changed two poopy diapers, dripped water on his head, cleaned his umbilical cord, massaged him all over...and he was still out. Because I'm trying to balance attention to two children, I needed to leave so I pumped and tried to bottle feed. Well, guess what? He still wouldn't feed. I only write all this out because my mother instincts were right. I already know my son even though I can't be by his side all the time. Having your child spend their entire life in a hospital while you continue on is hard and a mother doubts at times. But I knew my son :-)

The only other thing noteworthy is that Gabe blew his fourth vein out so we are on the fifth IV. Hopefully this is the last one...

I can honestly say this entire situation is life-changing. For some, it is a minute by minute ordeal, for others it is day by day. When we started out, it was minute by minute, but we have graduated to day by day. As long as Gabe stays this course, he will be discharged this weekend and we will move forward. There are babies here that have been here for a long time and still have a long way to go. I'm so grateful Gabe's stay is relatively short. My heart truly aches for the parents who have their baby here for weeks that turn into months. Gabe is going to blow this joint soon enough!