34 weeks 5 days old...

And discharged from the nicu!!!!!!
Our last day we got to hang out with our long time friend Cheryl who is a nurse in the nicu. Our friend who delivered Mattias walked us out of the hospital... It was a great day! Home to the other kiddos for them to meet their baby brother. Will post those photos later. For now I'm off to bed!

Bath time

First bath in the big boy tub was a success!!! Mattias loved it and totally relaxed!

Praise God for a 40 gram weight gain today!!!! Answered prayer!!

Tonight we were moved to bay 6... The last bay before discharge! :)

NICU day 14

Today we got great news... on rounds they were so impressed with Mattias that they have planned for him to be discharged home Friday or Saturday!!!!!! Praise God! Everyone keeps commenting on how he has surprised them all with his progress. Only God can be given the credit and glory. I have learned a lot about giving up control in the last few months. Clearly, I'm not in control. I am so thankful that Mattias is loving breastfeeding and is waking every 2-4 hours to feed, just like a term baby. Tonight he will have his first tub bath and hopefully when we weigh him he will have gained and will continue to gain so we can go home!!!!!

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!