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| Jacob, 6 weeks old, 3 lbs, 2 oz |
Yesterday was Jacob's 6 week birthday!! Tyson and I were both at the hospital pretty much all day, and I did not get a chance to write an update yesterday. First I'll share an update with some photos and then vent on some of the drama.
Medically speaking, Jacob was pretty much the same on Friday as he was on Thursday. Oxygen flow at 5.0 liters per minute and oxygen percent at 34% versus room air of 21%. This is so much better than he was earlier in the week. He is considered less critical but still not stable until his flow of oxygen gets around 3ish. His doctor is pleased with his progress and will lower the flow in 0.5 increments slowly to allow him to tolerate the change. He will go down to 4.5 today.
Jacob had his first try at a bottle today. He only took about a teaspoon or 4 ml from the bottle but allegedly it will help him have a positive association with things going down his throat versus the negative association of all the tubes going down.
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| Jacob's first bottle |
Jacob has also been getting some respiratory treatments and if he can tolerate it, they sit him up because the treatment gets to all the sections of the lung better this way. The respiratory therapist let me hold him sitting up during this treatment.
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| Jacob sitting up |
Jacob moved to a big boy bed today! It is still an isolette, similar to the old one, but does not have a humidifier (he doesn't need it anymore) and does not have a built-in-scale, meaning the will have to take him out of the bed to weigh him every night. They only put the more stable older babies in this kind of isolette.
During the bed change Tyson and I both got to hold Jacob for about a minute each. It was so short but so wonderful. I had not held him in 4 weeks and this was the first time for Tyson to be able to hold him! We expect as his oxygen flow gets lower that we will be able to hold him for more often and be able to sit down and rock him as we hold him for longer.
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| What I've been waiting to do for 4 weeks |
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| Daddy holds Jacob for the first time |
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| Jacob's new bed |
DRAMA - Sorry to vent, but thought I'd share some of the other NICU ups and downs that parents face:
First of all we are so thankful that Jacob is doing better and is more stable - that is the most important thing. Nearly all of the nurses have been wonderful, and I have full and complete confidence in all 6 of his doctors, they are excellent. BUT, like anywhere in life, we may not get along with all people. Yesterday, his nurse was a total witch. Reference the milestone of his first bottle above. The nurse decided yesterday was the time to do it, after his primary and nurse and all the other nurses said it was too soon (he should be ready in 3 weeks). Even worse, she decided it had to be done right NOW. Tyson told her 4 times I was on my way and she refused to wait for me, saying she has to feed him, she wouldn't starve a baby. I missed it by 5 minutes. He could have easily been tube fed for that feeding like all the other feedings. I don't know what kind of person makes a mother miss a big milestone like that. I was very upset about missing it, especially since it was for no medical reason that benefited Jacob. After I sit by his bedside watching him through plexiglass for 6 hours a day, and spend unknown hours every day unpleasantly pumping milk for him, I missed his first bottle. And the next try won't be for another couple days or weeks or whenever she gets the whim (but hopefully she is never his nurse again). I was so upset by this, I almost left the NICU for the day, but decided I wouldn't let her drive me away from my son. Later in the day she also insulted me, gave me a manners lesson and lectured Tyson on how to change a diaper (when as a very involved father of three, he is more experienced at it than she is).
This nurse also decided NOW is the time to give Jacob a new bed, after he had been in his old bed for 4 weeks, and his primary nurse says he is not stable enough to move until his flow gets to 4.0. But Nurse Ratched wheels the bed out at 1pm. We know that new bed means someone gets to hold him so we wait around eagerly for hours. I was afraid to go to the bathroom or go to pump for fear she'd make me miss another milestone. Finally we had to leave and made her to promise not to do it without us. First she gave us a lecture on how we are putting our baby at risk for infectious disease for staying in a dirty bed (for putting it off 3 hours when he has been in there 4 weeks, yeah right) then she agreed to wait until the start of the next shift. Unbelievably we got another inconsiderate nurse on the night shift too. We told her we came for the bed change, but they made us wait from 8pm until 11pm to change the bed and allow us to hold him, and even then got less than a minute of holding time. It's very frustrating to be at the mercy of these nurses who do everything on their schedule not Jacob's and not his parents. Don't get me wrong, it was worth the all-day-long-wait, but we do have 2 other kids at home who were waiting on us.
It's been 6 weeks and we have had nice nurses who put the baby and their families first. Hopefully yesterday was just an anomaly and we return to the land of nice NICU nurses.
