Two Weeks Old

Oliver is now two weeks old. In many ways that doesn't seem possible. I think that's mainly because of how little contact I've had with him. If he had been full-term, I would have had SO much more contact with him (holding him, changing his diaper, getting him dressed, nursing him, etc.) over these past two weeks. The first time I held him or changed his diaper was when he was 6 days old. On day six and day seven, I held him twice each day (at noon and 6pm). I held him for about 3 hours total over those two days. On days 8-12 I held him once each day for about 3 1/2 hours total. In his first 12 days of his life I held him for less than 7 hours total and wasn't allowed to attempt to nurse him. I changed his diaper 4 times in 12 days. I have had more contact with him the past two days thankfully. Yesterday and today I took the kids to a babysitter at 11am. After I arrived at the hospital, I pumped because they wanted the first attempts at nursing to be "dry." Then I held him for 2.25 hours, which included an attempt at nursing. After going to the bathroom and pumping again, I held him and attempted to nurse him for another 30 minutes. I held him for about 5.5 hours total over the past two days. In other ways, such as the fact that my swelling is gone, it does seem like he's two weeks old. Paul's dad picked the kids up tonight. He needed to make a trip to Philadelphia tomorrow for work, and he decided to take Shawn, Nadia, and Ian along so they could also go to a museum. This means I'll be spending MANY hours with Oliver tomorrow, and it meant Paul and I started tackling the project of putting his books back on the bookshelves. They don't allow "wet" nursing to take place until the baby is 34 weeks (which he'll be tomorrow). Thankfully, at this hospital they are going by my EDD according to IVF rather than LMP. The other hospital said he wouldn't hit 34 weeks until Friday, but they don't have the 34 week rule with nursing. They even allow babies as young as 29 weeks to nurse.

I wish I had brought my camera to the NICU yesterday as it was the first time he didn't have any breathing apparatus on his face. He was off the oxygen for 10 hours yesterday. They had to put him back on at 10pm due to his saturation levels being too low. This morning he wasn't doing well enough to have another "room air trial," but once I was holding him, his levels were actually "too high" (they don't want them to be above 95%), so they gave him a 2 hour room air trial this afternoon. They would have let him go longer, but his saturation levels started dropping even while I was holding him. He was alert both times that I tried to nurse him (noon and 3pm). He latched on quite a few times and did get a little bit of milk. He doesn't last long though. It feels like it will be a miracle if he's able to get all his nutrition from nursing within 2 weeks. I'll probably have to cave in and let him use a bottle. Yesterday they started fortifying my milk to increase the calories he's consuming per ml. I can't wait until the day I can stop pumping. I love nursing. I can't stand pumping. I am only pumping because #1 it's best for him and #2 pumping now will enable me to nurse him in the future.

I called the RMH, and they don't have any available rooms right now. If a room opens up, I'll check in there tomorrow. If not, I'll sleep in my own bed tomorrow night. At some point if there's still not a room available, I'll need to stay at someone else's house (someone who lives closer to the hospital than we do), but I think it will be fine if I sleep in my bed another night or two if there isn't any room for me at the RMH. I'm going to pack a suitcase tomorrow morning in case a room does become available, but if that doesn't happen, Paul and I are going to go to a Toyota dealership to test drive a Sienna minivan. Paul put three carseats in the back of his car on Monday morning, and it can be done. This means we don't have to rush into buying a minivan. We had been planning on buying the minivan in June or July, which I assumed would be in plenty of time before Oliver was born, but I wasn't expecting to be on bed rest starting on May 30. I am not crazy about Paul's Civic (because it has almost 200,000 miles on it and is a stick shift), but I can drive it for a few weeks if we don't buy a minivan before Oliver comes home from the hospital.