Monday (when Oliver was 6 days old) was the day I held him the first time. Yesterday (when Oliver was 11 days old) was the first time Paul held him. I'm guessing that the next two family members to hold him will be his two grandmas. He definitely prefers to be held kangaroo style. His saturation levels were in the 80's when Paul was holding him, and then when I had him under my shirt his level stayed at 100%. Previously any level above 95% would set off the alarm, but now that he's on room air it doesn't matter how high it goes.
Ian and Nadia both like being able to touch Oliver. They've both asked to hold him, but that's not going to happen until we're at home, and even then it would be under very close supervision. It was so nice to see Oliver without a CPAP and IV. They tried twice (once last night and once during the day today) to take him off the oxygen compeletly, but both times his saturation levels dropped too low. The last three days when the doctors did their rounds they started in Oliver's pod so the nurse told us yesterday to arrive at 9am today if we wanted to be there during rounds. Unfortunately the doctors started at a different end of the NICU today and didn't come to his bedside until after 3pm. The other days I was there at 3pm, but today we came in the morning per the nurse's suggestion. We left at 11am. The kids and Paul made a brief visit in the NICU, but most of the time I just snuggled with him (Kangaroo style). It's always so hard to leave. It feels strange to only hold a baby for 30-60 minutes a day, but I know when I'm back to giving him lots of attention then I'll feel badly about not seeing Nadia and Ian. I'm going to struggle with feeling guilty one way or the other until all three children are under the same roof.
During the rounds today the doctors changed his status, which probably means he'll be moving to a different pod. He's been with the micro-preemies, but now he's considered to be stable, which means his vitals won't be taken as frequently, and he can start wearing clothes again (he hasn't worn any since 8am on Wednesday). They also have started the process of getting him to work on learning to regulate his own body temperature. When he achieves that goal, he'll be moved out of the isolette. He's up to a full feed now (34ml every 3 hours). He's allowed to start the first step toward learning to nurse tomorrow. I am planning on being there for his noon and 3pm feeds tomorrow. If he seems to get the hang of it, then I'm planning on returning on Tuesday morning and not coming home until he's discharged. At least I'll have a car. The other times I stayed at the Ronald McD House while Nadia and Ian were in the NICU, I didn't have a car with me. I'm hoping that maybe he'll be home in about 2 weeks. The three goals that have to be met are getting off the oxygen, maintaining his body temperature, and learning to nurse. Although it will be hard to be separated from Paul, Nadia, and Ian again, it will be easier to nap during the day if I'm only responsible for Oliver. As to be expected since I'm pumping around the clock, I'm very sleep deprived on top of aching all over the place as I come off of 10+ weeks of bed rest.
We set up Oliver's room today. Nothing has been hung on his walls yet, but the crib is ready and the other furniture has been arranged. I think it looks great! I reassembled Paul's computer on the desk that's now in our bedroom, but zero progress has been made on all the piles of books and papers. I predict that will take weeks (months?). The good news is that Paul sent his advisor a 20 page draft of part of his final paper (and this will be the heart of his dissertation) a few days ago, and she gave him very positive feedback today. Today I made tuna noodle casserole, and Nadia and I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies (that Nadia and I wanted) and a batch of butterscotch oatmeal cookies (that Paul wanted). Yum! I've tried to make the last 5 days as normal as possible even though it's very painful to stand on my feet. If I had known Ian was going to take a long nap today (75 minutes), I would have napped at the same time. The other days his nap had been 30 minutes or less. Another bit of happy news regarding Ian today was that he ate his breakfast (toast) VERY quickly all by himself. It was such a relief to have one meal that wasn't a lengthy ordeal.
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