NICU day 13

So far it's a huge day! Last night for the 2 feeds we missed, Mattias bottled full feeds for the nurse! This am he took his full feed for me and so the team on round decided to shift to on demand feeds. No more schedule, when he's hungry we feed him. No more weighing and measuring every ml he drinks. He takes how much he wants. Huge shift in thinking for us!!!!

He also moved to a cot!!! Lots of big boy stuff going on around here! So many prayers answered!! We are praising God and so thankful for everyone who has been praying for Mattias.

Prayer requests: that Mattias will continue to wake for feeds and take enough with each feed, that he will continue to gain weight and that we can be discharged at 35 weeks or very soon after so we can be together as a family!!!!!!

Thank you!!

Midnight update

Mr man took a full feed breast feeding and then 26 mls at the 11:30 pm feed. We are happy! Plus he gained 115 grams! He is above birth weight!!!! Praise God!!

NICU day 12

As if last week we had 3 issues to resolve... Here's an update:

1) apneas and bradys of prematurity... No longer an issue, in fact he never had them, and successfully off caffeine. Yahoo!

2) temperature regulation... Done... Praying the night is good and then tomorrow he should move to a bassinet like a big boy:)

3) feeds... Today has been another awesome breastfeeding day. At night he doesn't bottle well at all so the speech pathologist came by today to watch him bottle a feed and she had a lot of suggestions. First a slower flow nipple, second a tongue tie release and third me breast feeding as much as possible as it is way less work for him. After discussing with the NP taking care of him, they suggested that I stay as much as possible for breastfeeding and if he does well with that tomorrow they want me to stay overnight and are discussing moving him to demand feeds and possibly taking out his ng tube! So the next few days will be challenging for our family, but the more he can take from the breast the sooner we will come home! We want to be together as a family and want Mattias to continue to grow and develop and the team feels this is what is best for him. Please pray he doesn't tire and continues to nurse well at night!

Pictures are on Jason's phone from today so I will have to update them later :)

Look who's in an open isolette!!!!

It's true! Mattias is now regulating his own temp!!!! Another hurdle down! Praise God!

NICU day 11

Today was another awesome day!!! Overnight Mattias bottled for the nurses and maintained his temp in a cooler isolette. He qualified for an open lid isolette today, but our nurse said that when the babies are working on feeding sometimes it too hard to push them on two fronts, so we opted to keep his lid on today. Also, he spends most of his time during the day out of the isolette being held by us. Over night they may take off his lid.

Today the big news is that he fed an entire feed plus more on the breast!!!! Huge huge news in our world!!!! He took 44 mls in one feed and he was actually letting us know before the feed that he was ready for a feed! Praise God!!!! Answered prayer!!!

We enjoyed so many cuddles and sleepy smiles from our boy today!

NICU day 10

Today was an amazing day!!! So crazy how things can change in a day! Mattias is 34 weeks old today. He gained 89 grams so I know what all that sleeping was about yesterday! The other amazing thing was his breast feeding. We started off with his first feed... 32 mls from the breast and 8 ng. The second feed he took 14 mls from the breast and 26 ng. The last feed was amazing... 36 mls from the breast and after warming his 4 mls that I thought would go in his ng he decided to wake up and take it from the bottle!!!! So none of his feed was done by ng tube!!! Praise God what a huge day!!! I pray we have turned a corner and will only improve from here. I'm pretty impressed with my little man!!! He is such a blessing!

NICU day 9

Was a bit of a discouraging day. Weight down 29 grams. Human milk fortifier was increased to add more calories to my breast milk and there was talk of adding formula if he doesn't gain. Also Mattias was super sleepy and only nursed 4 mls twice in the whole day. I did enjoy a lot of cuddles and sleepy smiles though! Who doesn't love that? As I sit in the nicu I realize how blessed we are. Our son isn't sick... He's just early and needs to grow. Praise God for that!

NICU day 8

Today was an awesome day!!! Today when I arrived Mattias was alert and ready for a feed so we tried breast feeding and he latched and sucked the whole feed. For his afternoon feed I didn't get a chance to pump before hand and he was rooting so the nurse decided to do a pre and post weight. He latched and nursed and ended up getting 20 mls from breast feeding which is half of his feed!!! So exciting and such a huge step forward! He was totally tired out for the next feed so he got that one all through the ng tube but I'm so thankful for steps forward.


Yesterday he lost 10 grams so he weighs 2181 grams ( 4 pounds 4 oz). Hopefully today he gained. Praise God for no apneas and being off caffeine. Jason and I did kangaroo care for the whole day. It was a good day in the nicu! Thank you for your prayers!

When the doctors were handing over tonight and got to Mattias they said "this is Mattias. He was born at 32 weeks. Intubated for a day and now he's growing". Then they walked away. I love that!!!!

Cuteness

Bathed, changed, fed, and off to sleep.

NICU day 7

The Lord continues to bless us with amazing nurses who love to help families care for their own babies while in the nicu. Little man had no apneas over night, praise God for that! So the caffeine was totally stopped today. So far so good.
Mattias gained 9grams today, we will take that over a loss! His feeds were increased today to 37 mls every 3 hours. He successfully latched twice and had some decent sucks but nothing to actually count as nursing. The np told me he is doing awesome for his gestation feeding wise.

He was so much more alert today and so so cute! I love snuggling my little man all day! So thankful for everyone helping us with our other kiddos. Couldn't do this without them. Please continue to pray from Mattias to learn to feed and regulate his temp!!

Nicu day 6

Today we had another amazing nurse. She is trained in FI care ( family integrated care) and she believes in it very strongly so she encouraged me to hold Mattias literally all day from 9 am until 7 pm! She even taught me to pump at the bedside with him on me.

Today Mattias had his caffeine dose cut in half. Nickname today "half caf". So we watch carefully to see what will happen and pray he won't have any apneas or bradycardias.

Unfortunately he lost 67 grams yesterday so today they decided to add human milk factor to my breast milk to increase his calories. So far he is handling that well and we will see tonight how his weight is.

Spent the day enjoying our sweet boy!!! Thank you Jesus for a wonderful day!

Day 5 NIcu. April 22

Today was another awesome day. Arrived at 8:15 am. Left at 7 pm. Had him in my arms about 95 percent of that time. Again had an amazing nurse!!! Today I was able to sit down with the nurse practitioner who is taking care of Mattias and we had a long discussion about his care and the plan and goals.

Things that need to happen before we can go home:

1: temperature control
Currently his isolette is at 29.5 and he needs to be at 27.5 and maintain his body temp between 36.5 to 37.5. This may take a bit.

2: apneas of prematurity
Currently he is on caffeine to prevent these and it's working. He will be on this for a while until his gestational age increases past the danger zone.

3: feeding
If Mattias was still in utero he wouldn't be sucking yet. Gestationally he can't coordinate suck, swallow, breathe. We are told you shouldn't expect it until 34 weeks. We are at 33 weeks 2 days. He did latch today and give about 10 strong sucks while having his feed through the ng tube. Steps in the right direction.

Basically the NP told us no one leaves before 35 weeks. Some babies need until 40 weeks. We are praying to be closer to 35 weeks!

Honestly didn't take one photo today. Wow. That's kinda bad. Was just a savoring every second with my son. I noticed today he has that glorious newborn smell. He is amazing! All praise to God!

April 21. Day 4 NICU

Today we walked in and our baby wasn't in his same location... panic... he was moved to bay 5!!!! The sickest babies are in bay 1 and bay 6 is just before you go home. We will take bay 5 any day!!!!!! We had an amazing nurse today who taught us so much! We were allowed to do things other families are not because we are in the study. This includes getting our sons feeds ready, measured out and warmed up, taking his weight and temperature and charting it. It seems so silly but these are things that we miss out on that we would normally be doing if we were at home.

We spent 9 hours holding Mattias today which was amazing. He had no desaturations today which was a huge improvement from the previous day. He had his caffeine changed to oral from IV. It's just given to prevent apneas. He has never had one thankfully. Today he got his IV taken out and we were able to bath him for the first time. We also graduated... He got clothes!!!!!! Huge deal!

We are so thankful for amazing nurses and an amazing God who is almighty and able to keep our son strong and growing.

April 20. NICU day 3

We arrived just in time for the little man's feed and Jason have him the feed while I pumped. The I latched him on for some sucking practice. He is getting the idea slowly:) he gets really mad when he is changed and has a good set of lungs ;)
His antibiotics were stopped after cultures came back negative. His dobutamine for perfusion was stopped. All awesome steps in the right direction.

We were able to hold him quite and bit and had him on the breast for practice with every feed. At his 5 pm feed he was actually acting hungry and sucked quite a bit. Just until daddy puts the milk though the ng tube then he falls asleep content. We changed diapers and adjusted his bed and transferred him in and out of the isolette. All things you take for granted when you have your baby at home. Now we rejoice when we are able to be apart of his care.

His feeds are up to 29 cc a feed so the plan over night was to stop all tpn and iv fluids!!! Pumping is going great and I am way ahead supply wise so hopefully we can avoid supplements.

We are praising God for his work and for what a miracle Mattias is. We are in love with this boy! Thankful he is here and doing so well!

Pictures to follow

Nicu day 2

Today was a great day! We were able to wake up and go down before rounds to have a cuddle. Mattias remained off all ventilation support! praise God he is breathing room air with help only from caffeine! Then on rounds they decided to feed him today! He started breast milk and I was able to try latching him to the breast twice for non nutritive sucking time. This way he can get used to knowing where his food comes from :)

Jason and I were able to help a lot with his care today. He is loving his soother and doing so awesome! Tolerating feeds so far and my breast milk supply seems to be increasing as well so that's a huge blessing!

Today we were asked to be part of a study that is happening in the nicu which involves parents in the care of babies to determine if parental involvement helps improve weight gain, decrease parental anxiety and have faster discharges from nicu. To be part of the study you have to be born less than 34 weeks gestation and we need to be present 8 hours a day in the nicu to help with care of your baby. We are super excited to have extra hands on time with Mattias. So starting Monday we will begin the study as participants.

Tonight my one leg became swollen and weak and feels numb. So here we are sitting waiting for an ultrasound to rule out a dvt. Jason ran my pumped milk upstairs and checked on our man. His night nurse says she has nothing to report he is doing so awesome! Praise God!!!! I pray he will continue to be so stable! Can't wait to hold him tomorrow!