Homecoming (Part I)

Sleeping and getting kissed after bottle feeding.

Razvan and I have been home since Wednesday.  This homecoming has been bittersweet since we had to leave Nicholas in the capable hands of the NICU nurses at BWH.  It’s been really tough for us to be away from our baby like that, and we’ve been taking every available opportunity to visit him and get to know him better.

Nicholas in his new isolete, prior to getting transfered to a crib.

Overall Nicholas is doing great!  Initially milk was delivered directly to his stomach through a feeding tube that was inserted through his nose into his stomach and taped to his face.  Ever since the first day Nicholas was also working on bottle feeding with daddy and breast feeding with mommy, and was making nice progress with both.  The nurses of the NICU, however, kept hesitating to remove his feeding tube and wanted to keep it in for a while, just in case.  Well, we had a very proud parenting moment on the day of our discharge from the hospital when in the middle of the night Nicholas took out his own feeding tube!  Somehow the little guy managed to tag on it strongly enough to peel off the tape from his face and pull the tube out of his stomach!!!  We think it was his way of telling us he no longer needed it and was ready to take his food completely by mouth.  Way to go, little dude!  He’s been eating well on his own ever since.  He seems to have mastered bottle feeding.  He is still quite small and not strong enough to get all the calories he needs by breastfeeding, but we are working on it.

Nicholas also completed his phototherapy (“tanning”) and transitioned from a temperature-controlled incubator to an open crib where he has to maintain his own body temperature.  If all progresses according to plan, he should be coming home with us in the next day or two.  The next big milestone for him is to pass the “car seat test”.  He has to stay in the car seat in the hospital for 1.5 hours without fussing!

Happily resting on mommy after a breastfeeding workout.

As for me, the recovery from C-section has been slow and unpleasant.  I feel like my body freaked out on me.  Day 4 post-partum was the worst.  I couldn’t get the pain under control, I developed some major bruising on my belly from all the tagging and pulling during surgery, my digestive system was a wreck, all the water that was pumped into my body through the IV during surgery descended into my legs and ankles making it extremely difficult to walk.  Worst of all, Nicholas started “tanning” and had to remain in the incubator continuously so I couldn’t even hold my baby all day.  Since then things have been getting progressively better every day, and baby daddy has been extremely helpful in taking care of me.  My body is still having a hard time getting rid of all the extra water, so the doc prescribed me some meds yesterday to aid me in that goal.  I hope those meds work soon!

To be continued…