2nd Time Around

I am sure there are many ways in which parenting Ian will be different than Nadia simply because he's the second born. One example that pops into my mind would be feeding him vegetables. I was very diligent during the first 6 months that I fed Nadia solid foods to make sure she had some vegetables every day. During the summer when I was introducing her to a variety of fresh fruits, the vegetables became few and far between. Part of the problem is that her parents don't eat vegetables every day. I regret not having kept up a steady diet of vegetables for her though because now there are a few (like green beans) that she used to eat without any fuss that now she doesn't want to eat At All. My goal with Ian is to not take a break from serving him veggies at any point.

So far I can only compare the experience of the first 4 days with Ian vs. Nadia. This experience has definitely been different in many ways. In some instances things were easier the first time around such as I had a private room during my whole stay here with Nadia whereas I only had that for about one day this time. Having a private room is SO much better, especially considering I've wanted to go to bed before my roommates have wanted to do so. The NICU policies have changed over the past year. We used to need to really scrub (even gave us a little brush to use under our nails each time) and then wear a yellow gown. Instead of a 3 minute scrub, now they just want all visitors to the NICU to use hand sanitizer, and the gowns are a thing of the past. So the process of going in and out of the NICU is definitely easier this time around although if I end up at the Ronald McDonald House my visits will become more complicated than they are now or would be if i was in what they call the demo room (in the NICU). Last time Nadia was only on the CPAP for a few hours, and Ian has been on it for over 3 days thus far. I am praying he will come off of it today so I can start nursing him. Ian came 2 weeks earlier than Nadia did, which is why I assume he's needed to be on the CPAP longer than she did. He, on the other hand, didn't need to go under the bili lights as soon as she did. He's been much better about leaving his "sunglasses" on, but he

Having already gone through the experiences of a c-section, nursing, and having a baby in the NICU before has definitely led to me handling things better this time around. I knew the incision would be really painful, but I've forced myself to walk sooner and be more independent in general this time around. Same goes for pumping. I was a wimp last time in terms of the setting I kept the pump at for the first several days. I am not saying I haven't had a lot of pain when pumping (even had some bleeding), but I've just told myself to deal with it. The last four times I pumped (throughout the night) each time I was able to get between 5-8ml of milk into the syringes. The nurse put a little directly into his mouth last night so now he has tasted my milk. Mostly he's just been fed through a tube. She had enough from all my syringes to give him one full feeding of my milk instead of formula last night. So all the pumping is paying off! As for having a baby in the NICU, I was VERY stressed out last time and immediately was thinking in terms of when are they going to discharge her. This time I have tried to be a lot more relaxed, and my main focus has just been when will they get him off the CPAP although of course I'm hoping he's discharged as soon as possible!

The little sponge he is holding in the pictures above is in my opinion his first toy. He kept ripping off things he wasn't supposed to rip off, so the nurse put that in his hand instead. It worked! He was waving the sponge all around and that prevented him from messing with his CPAP or the other things attached to him. They said today that not only might he come off the CPAP, but he also might no longer need the arterial line or IV. It would be great if he didn't have so many things attached to him by the end of the day! My mom is now at home taking care of Nadia. I am going to pump and then head down to the NICU. Hopefully the doctors will get to him by 11am. Yesterday I waited for 2 1/2 hours, but they still hadn't come to him by noon. That was one moment I admit I didn't stay very relaxed. I was pretty upset. I am determined to be there when they come to see him today - no matter how many hours I have to wait!

Our fence was supposed to be installed last week, but due to the snow the installation didn't begin until this week (Monday). They should be finishing the work today. My mom says it looks nice. I surely wasn't trying to have a fence installed the week I was in the hospital with Ian, but we weren't expecting him to come so early. I think in the spring and summer I will be very glad we have this fence as it was hard to keep Nadia in our yard this summer.