Home at Last!!

Nathan and I are finally home in TN!!! We flew out of Philly Sunday (March 25) morning with my in-laws and arrived in Nashville at 8:15 AM. Mike and my parents meet us at the airport. Remember this was the first time since Nathan was a week and a half old that Mike has seen him. So of course we had to get a picture of Nathan with his daddy.

And it was also Nathan's first plane ride, which he slept through. He only really woke up once and got a little fussy and then quickly went back to sleep. So I guess you could say that I was lucky that he did not scream during the whole flight.




Let's do a recap of what happened last week. Well it was busy and tiring. Nathan had several visitors while we were in NJ. A lot of family and friends came to see the little man and of course I let them hold them as long as they were not sick. Not trying to be paranoid but we are talking about a preemie here. We also went to a pediatrician on Tuesday and found out that Nathan weighed 7 lbs. The doctor told me that Nathan looked and behaved like a normal healthy infant and that he should be just fine for flying. Then we had a nurse visit on Wednesday. This lady was a little weird so I am not going to talk about that visit to much. Then Nathan had to worry me a little by not pooping for a couple of days. I thought that I was going to have to do something that was not going to be pleasant for me or him, but then he pooped. He must have sensed what I was planning.
Nathan was held by and got to play with his Grandparent Kents, his Aunt Becky and Son-to-be Uncle Brian. He was visisted several times by his Great Grandparents Graves who loves to take pictures of him as well as everything else. Also his great great grandmother got to come over to the house to see and hold him, she is around 96 years old. And Nathan is the first great great grandson and there are five generations alive at the same time now!! A few of his Great Aunts, Great Uncles and second Cousins came by to see him. His grandparents friends and neighbor saw him, as well as Mike and I's friends that live up in NJ. So Nathan got to be held and cuddle alot, problem is now I think he is spoiled he seems to like being held more than he likes sleeping in his crib sometimes.
Playtime with his Aunt Becky:




Here are some pics of people that came to visit.
Family:
Great Grandparents Graves, The Kappes, The Kennys, Great Great Grandmother




Friends of daddy and mommy:

James and Rachel, Andy and Susan


Tuckered out from the visits!


When we got home we showed Mike's parents our new apartment and set around a talked for a little bit. Then the grandparents went out for lunch leaving Mike, Nathan and I alone for the first time in our home. So what did we do?? Well.... we all took a nap. I sure needed it I was getting sleep deprived. Mike also got to experience his first dirty diaper, he did not change it but he stood there with the horrified look on his face with his nose wrinkled up. It was really funny to see. Later that night he changed a diaper himself, just wet but sometime soon he will change a really nasty one. He also got to feed his piggy son his bottle and hear the loud burps and sounds from the other end that his son lets out, lol.
The cats also got introduced to Nathan. Freya our older cat just walked away like she could care less. Loki the younger cat is actually somewhat interested and will walk over to Nathan and sniff him randomly. Also when Nathan is in the pack n' play in the bedroom, Loki will sit on our bed and watch Nathan sleep, kinda of like he is a guard cat.

So hopefully now that I am home I will be able to get more sleep now that I have some one to help me feed Nathan in the middle of the night. The middle of the morning feed, usually 3 or 4 AM, really kills me.
But that seems to be part of being a mother or father, you tend to become a zombie the first few months when the baby comes home.

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

Saying goodbye to our friends!

Nathan was discharged from the hospital this afternoon, and I got to bring him home!!. Well to the my in-laws house in NJ but it is a start. Hopefully next week we will be back in TN with daddy. I still have not decided on whether or not I want to fly back. There is a lot of stuff that I am going to need to take back with me. So we had a really busy morning and afternoon. Nathan was wide awake for most of the time and when they took his pictures, he got upset when we first put him in the car seat but then he fell asleep! And slept the whole car ride home and when we first got into the house.

Nathan all dressed up for St. Patty's Day


I can't believe that I have my baby all to myself! Well I am sharing him with family and friends. He is visiting with his grandparents and great-grandparents right now.

Playing with Grandmom and Grandpop

Interesting comparisons are that when Nathan was born he weighed 3 lbs and 11 oz, he was 18 inches long and his head was 26 cm. When he was discharged he weighed 6 lbs and 11oz, 19 1/2 inches long and his head was 34 cm! He definitely did some growing!! It is so weird not to have to go back to the NICU, I mean it was beginning to become so ingrained into my daily schedule. Now I get to stay in the house with Nathan and find things to do to busy myself and find time to sleep. Ah, motherhood. But I having been waiting for this for almost 2 months. 51 days in fact!! It is nice to actually hold him without always having someone else around to ask if I am okay.
I also gave Nathan a bath, needless to say he was not happy at first but then he started to like it until I started washing him then he got mad again. Which is actually kind of funny to watch. He will stick out his lower lip and he looks like he is pouting then he cries. He is so cute!

Mad Nathan

Now I can't wait to get home to get my little family back together again. I know that Mike misses us, mostly me right now! :)
Thank goodness my Irish luck came in handy on today of all days!!

It's a Rollar Coaster baby

Nathaniel was supposed to discharged on Monday Feb 26th. On the Saturday before that he had a major bradycardia, his heart rate dropped then his oxygen levels dropped. Needless to say he was not going to be discharge on Monday. I took this very hard, I had everything riding on this day because once he was discharged then I could go home and things would go back to normal, so I thought. Soon I learned that things do not go back to normal so soon when you have a preemie. Even if they are one of the lucky few preemies that do not have the hearing, vision, motor or learning skills affected from being born so early, their development is still delayed. (For instance Nathan is now weighing 6 lbs and 4 oz, that is a normal weight for a full term baby slightly on the small size but still a good weight. Trust me I know (more on this later). Right now their is another little boy in the NICU is a hefty 9 lbs and some odd oz. He is a full term baby that is staying in the NICU for an infection that they are not sure how he got, but he his doing much better an soon will get to go him with his parents. Nathaniel is almost 2 months old, the other baby boy is almost a week old. This baby is still bigger than Nathan even though he is older. And I am not talking in weight I am talking in size. It seems that preemies do tend to be smaller than their full term counterparts for a least their first two years. The other thing is preemies tend to have delayed development in their motor skills. Most preemie parents have the actual age of the child and then the adjusted age. The adjusted age is the one they use when getting immunizations for their children and when to judge whether or not they are developing their gross motor skills around the right time. Nathan is trying to pick his head and look around when laying on his stomach, but he still has not quite got the hang of it.)

Mommy's Little Monster

After the passing of the failed discharge I went home to TN for a few day to recharge myself. My stress level was way to high and my milk production was being affected. Besides Nathan had a little bit longer before he could go home. The Neo doc wanted Nathan to go 7 full days without having a major incident where someone had to stimulate him to remind his brain to breathe. I left for TN on Sunday (March 4) evening and came back to NJ on Thursday evening (March 8). On Friday morning (March 9) the NICU doctor told me that Nathan was going to need a blood transfusion, okay not big deal. The neo-doc said that he felt that the low blood level/iron count was adding to the brady's so he felt if we did the blood transfusion then he should stop having the drops. I wanted to use my blood, since I am the same blood type. They said sure and looked into it with the local red cross, well the red cross told them that it would it would take 6 business days to do all the tests to before they could give the blood to Nathan. Well needless to say I did not want to wait 6 days only to have to wait another 7 days. So I said whatever use the bank donor blood. I was angry, I mean my god I had just given birth to this child and they tested both of our blood then they knew I did not have anything.
Nathan having blood transfusion

Okay, back to I know about the weights of babies. I have been visiting in the NICU for the past month, I have seen all kinds of babies come and go. Ones that get sent on to Our Lady of Lourdes because they are very premature . Usually these babies are under 31 weeks and having major medical issues. These tiny darlings are just that, TINY. These babies are usually 3.5 lbs and under, a lot were around 1.5lbs. I have also seen the ones that are full term come in because they are cold or breathing funny or not eating well or have an infection, like Nathan's big friend I mentioned earlier. These babies range from 6 lbs and up. So I have seen a lot of different sizes of babies come into the NICU. I have also almost that many be discharged. Which is even more depressing at times because I want it to be my turn.
Playing in the car seat

But HOPEFULLY my turn will be Saturday March 17th. As long as everything goes well tonight, Nathaniel will get to come home on Saint Patrick's Day. Funny thing is, as joyful as I am about bringing my baby home I am also slightly scared and afraid. He will come home on a monitor which will help but still I am worried. But I guess this is natural.

Life in the NICU

Life in the NICU is something that most new parents never have to experience, in fact most people do not even know that there is such a thing in some hospitals. Underwood Memorial Hospital is one of those hospitals that has a NICU. This where I have experienced a lot of firsts with my son, the first time I held him, gave him a bottle, changed his clothes and his diaper, breastfeed him.... the whole time he was hooked to a monitor that told me what his heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen levels were and with nurses helping me with every little thing.

Nathan on CPAP

When I first saw Nathan after he was born before they took him to the NICU he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. But I am sure that all mothers feel that way, :) When I first saw him in the NICU it was the first time that I was really afraid for him. They had him on a CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure, this would blow air into his lungs basically helping him to breathe. Because premature babies lungs don't always have the time to mature they have a difficult time breathing. Seeing your child on a CPAP is a pretty scary thing. But also seeing your child hooked up to a bunch of wires and IV's just adds to the fear. And he was also very small. Not as small as some preemies are, but he was still the smallest baby that I had ever seen.
Nathan was on the CPAP until the 28th of Jan then he was moved to a nasal cannula which is the plastic tube with prongs that go up your nose that gives you oxygen. That same day he had to be placed on a biliblanket because he had jaundice.

Nathan on Biliblanket

On the 29th of Jan he was moved from the open aired warming table to a closed in Incubator or Isolette where he remained until Feb 17th. This is also the day that my husband and I got to hold him for the first time. The Isolette kept his body temperature up for him until he was old enough to keep his temp at around 98 by himself. During the time in the Isolette Nathan had to be given a feeding tube that went into his nostril and down to his stomach because he was to weak to feed from a bottle, which he had been doing well at for the first couple of days. He still had jaundice on and off and would be under the phototherapy lights for most of the first couple of weeks.

First time holding Nathan In Isolette

During his first week of life he was visited by both set of grandparents, both aunts, one set of great grandparents, various cousins, great aunts, and adopted aunts and uncles (friends of mike and mine). He was quite the popular baby. It was our hope and the Neo-doctors hope that he would be discharged to go home by the time he was a month old and then we would be able to return to TN.
But until this time I had to learn to be a parent in the NICU with alarms from the monitors beeping at random times and being afraid that I would not know how to handle such a small baby. I also had to spend a lot of time reassuring myself and my family that things would be okay when I did not really know for sure what the outcome would be. This is the most difficult part of having a preemie in my opinion. The not knowing what tomorrow is going to bring, the wondering if that phone call is the NICU calling to tell you you need to get to the hospital, the fear that your baby will be worse and not better the next day when you get to the NICU. To add to this you have the grief of not having the perfect pregnancy, of not getting the last months of your pregnancy, of not being able to take your baby home with you when you leave the hospital. Worse for me, I was in a different state, away from my home and my surroundings, and soon to be away from my major support system. My husband, Mike, needed to go back home to TN to go back to work, that meant that I would be without him until Nathan was discharged from the hospital and we went back home.

Early surprise

I was 7 months pregnant. Like any pregnant woman I would go from miserable to joyful. My husband and I were going up to New Jersey, where he is from, for a baby shower that my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law were throwing for me. I went to my OB got permission to fly because everything was going great with the pregnancy so far, besides I was only 31 weeks, nothing happens that early right? Well the plane ride was bumpy, really bumpy but we finally landed in NJ safe and sound. I was feeling fine a little grumpy, lack of sleep, but overall I was feeling very well. Well later that night or early the next, whichever you prefer, I went into the bathroom and found that I was bleeding. Not a whole lot but it was not just spotting either. So we got up and my in-laws drove my husband and I to the hospital. I got checked into observation and they checked my heart rate, the baby's heart rate , my blood pressure, and to see if I was having any contractions. Well the found that I was having what they thought to be Braxton-Hicks contractions, or false labor. But they put me on bed rest for several hours and gave me a magnesium drip to slow or stop the contractions. A nurse shift change later I was still having the contractions, so they took me downstairs for an ultrasound to see how my placenta looked and how the baby was doing. Placenta was fine, baby .. he was in the head down blast off ready to go position. So back up stairs for a pelvic exam, goody... Surprise!! I was 4 cm dilated and completely effaced, in other words I was in labor and the baby was coming out no matter what.

Mike and I during labor


Five hours later at 5.02pm on Jan 26, 2007 my son made his appearance to the world. Weighing in a 3 lbs 11 oz and 18 inches long. He cried when he came out, a good sign, but he was still 2 months early. Soon after he was born he was taken to the NICU, Neonatal intensive care unit. This is where he has been for 48 days and we are still counting.


Nathaniel on Scale