Happy Saint Nicholas!

On the new Orthodox Calendar (Romanian) today we celebrate Saint Nicholas. My fond memories of this holiday are marked with a smell of oranges, chocolate and candy that I used to find in my clean boots in the morning. The tradition, as instilled in me by my parents, was to clean my boots the eve of Saint Nicholas and place them by the door. If all went well in the morning I would find gifts stuffed in my boots.

Dressed in new clothes for Saint Nicholas.

Kona, ready to dribble.

Out on a stroll in the park.

After a bath on the eve of Saint Nicholas.

Got my booties ready!

Nicholas is 1 Month Old!

Nicholas turned one month this Monday Nov. 29.  At that time he weighed in at 6.5 lbs (3 kg) and measured at 21 inches tall (53 cm).  We are really excited by his progress, and are trying our best to keep up with him.

I realize that my blogs are getting progressively shorter these days.  Motherhood turns out to be busier than I thought it would be.  But hey, better short and sweet than nothing at all, right?  Here are some pictures to keep you all updated.

Hug magnet

Kolya and Kona

Sleeping like an angel

Napping in my crib

Mammalhood

Being a mammal is not easy!  As difficult as it is to get the hang of nursing with a full term baby, breastfeeding a premature baby is even a tougher game to play.  Nicholas and I both have been trying very hard from the start, and made some progress in the NICU and at home, but haven’t quite mastered the process…

To become a happier, more successful mammal I decided to get professional help, and invited a lactation consultant to come to our house.  She confirmed that at this point Nicholas is not yet mature enough to get all the calories he needs by breastfeeding alone, and still needs the bottle.  She also showed us some really amazing positioning techniques to get Nicholas’ instincts fired up for breastfeeding.  I was really impressed by her recommendations, and see drastic improvement in our feeding routine! 

There are definite pluses to bottle-feeding though because anyone can feed the baby from the bottle and mommy can get a break.  For instance, last night I got to catch up on some major sleep and let daddy and uncle handle the nighttime feedings.  Last night daddy’s brother came to visit us from New York.  The boys stayed up all night playing videogames and shooting zombies, and were wide awake and willing to take care of Nicholas’ feedings at 1:30 am and 4:30 am.  I still had to get up at night to prevent my boobs from “exploding” and express my milk by pumping, but pumping is much faster than feeding a newborn, so I got more continuous sleep as a result.  Nice!

Here are some pictures from the last few days at home:

After getting blessed by Fr. Patrick at home

Feed me!  Daddy and uncle take over the night time feedings.

Chilling with my dog and daddy

Stealing mommy's body heat :-)

First Week at Home

It's been one week since we took Nicholas home.  Our life is now fragmented into 3-4 hour increments, and organized around Nicholas' feeding times.  The nurses at the NICU had Nicholas on a similar feeding schedule, and we've been trying our best to keep that up.  It's working so far :-)  Still, things are fairly hectic, so I'm keeping this post short.  Here are some pictures from our first week at home.

I'm getting so tall!

Posing for a picture after my first bath at home

Out for a walk with my family

Strolling with mommy

Catching up on some sleep in my stroller

Homecoming (Part II)

Nicholas is home!

Our homecoming is complete!  We took Nicholas home last Thursday evening (11.11.2010).  His discharge caught us a little by surprise.  On Wednesday he got moved to an open crib because he pooped all over his temperature-controlled isolette (and there was no clean isolette available at that time).  In the next 24 hours he proved that he can maintain his own body temperature, and was ready for discharge!

We are so happy to finally have our baby home!  Nicholas is doing great, and is doing everything that a baby is supposed to do: eating, sleeping, pooping, peeing, burping, etc.  He is now 5.5 lbs (2.5 kg) and is getting bigger and stronger every day.  

We appreciate all your kind words, congratulations, and gifts sent our way.  At some point we will make some time to thank each of you individually.  For now, we have our hands full, and are trying to enjoy every minute of it! 

Here are some pictures from Nicholas' last day in the NICU and first few days at home.

Last night in the NICU swaddled into the coziest clothes and guarded by a baby giraffe.  Soon it will be time to say goodbye to the cute girl in the crib next to mine and all the nurses taking care of me.

                                          

                                              all geared up in the car seat

waiting for an official discharge with mommy

daddy and me

yay! clean diper!

I'm finally home!

Day 12

We were so close to taking Nicholas home last Saturday (11/6).  We went over the discharge plans with the docs, scheduled a follow up visit with a pediatrician, took infant CPR class, learned how to give Nicholas a bath, and even purchased a car seat made to fit a baby under five pounds.  Nicholas, however, wasn’t quite ready.  He had a hard time maintaining his own body temperature in an open crib, and was transferred to a temperature-controlled isolette on Friday night.

The good news is that Nicholas is eating well and gaining weight.  He lost a little weight at birth (as all babies do), but he has just exceed his birth weight of 5 lbs yesterday.  It should only be a matter of time before he fattens up enough and is able to control his own temperature. 

Razvan and I have been visiting Nicholas and spending 6+ hours in the NICU every day.  We brought him all kinds of stuff to keep him warm, warm blankets, fleecy outfits, and hats.  We’ve also been doing lots of skin-to-skin contact with him (Kangoroo care) to warm him up.  The nurses, of course, have been extremely cautious about putting him in an open crib again, and said that he needs to demonstrate a consistent body temperature in the range of 98.1-98.5 before switching him to an open crib.  He’s been pretty close to that, but sometimes his temperature would drop to like 97.5, and that’s not good enough.

Anyway, around 4am last night, despite all odds, Nicholas transitioned to an open crib.  The nurses still think he wasn’t quite ready, but they had no choice in the matter.  Nicholas had a major “poop explosion” last night and pooped all over his isolette.  His isolette required major cleaning, and the nurses did not have another isolette immediately available for him.  So he ended up in an open crib.  Razvan and I are gearing up for another visit and some skin-to-skin care to warm him up.

I am feeling much better, by the way.  The diuretics prescribed by my doc helped me get rid of most of excess water in my body.  I lost 12 lbs in two days!  I still have some excess water, but it’s nothing compared to what it was last week!  Yesterday was the first day since coming home that I was able to get out of bed without Razvan’s help.  Today was the first time I took our dog out on walk.  I am enjoying healing and recovery, and slowly regaining control over my body.

Holding hands with mommy

Sleeping on daddy's hairy chest

Smiling or pooping?  You'll never know!

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…

Day 5

Daddy changing Nicholas' diaper.

We have been at BWH for over a month now. While our stay here is coming to an end, our Nicholas adventure is just beginning. Tonight is the last night sleeping at the hospital for Kat and I which is both exciting and a little scary. While we are excited about getting to sleep in our bed again, getting reunited with Kona (and the rest of the zoo) and leaving the overall hospital setting behind, we will definetly miss some of the amenities of BWH (i.e. room service, room cleaning & care, etc). One of the hardest things will be having to commute back and forth between home and the hospital for the next week or so to care for Nicholas while in the NICU (by the way, for non-romanian speakers, Nicu is short for Nicholas :)).

In other news, Nicholas is now off the iv and has just completed his second feeding entirely by bottle (a huge achievement). If he continues at this pace, Nicholas should be getting his feeding tube removed soon as well. At that point he will probably only stay in the NICU for a few more days under observation and then released to go home.

Tanning

Besides getting taken off the oxygen monitor because he is doing so well on his own, today Nicholas also started "tanning" (jaundice phototherapy). He is also getting ready (probably in the next 12 hours) to get taken off the iv as he continues to learn how to multi-task (suck, swallow and breathe - he sounds like a triathlete already). He had his third attempt at the bottle with Daddy at the helm, giving mommy a well deserved rest.

The First Three Days

Here are a few pictures from the last three days.

Our sleep deprivation is slowly setting in. Kat is slowly but steadily recovering from the surgery. Aiding her with her soreness is a cocktail of pain meds and narcotics. At this point Nicholas is getting fed every 4 hours. He is getting a mix of dextrose, sterilized donor-bank breast-milk and mommy's own. For now his food is delivered through the iv (dextrose), feeding tube and bottle (sterilized donor-bank breast-milk mixed with mommy's own). The goal is to get Nicholas to the point where the only food he is taking in is mommy's own breast-milk directly from the source. While the iv is slowly phased out as the amount delivered through the feeding tube is increased, breast feeding is a process that will take some time to be mastered by both mommy and baby.In other news, daddy Razzy is getting proficient and changing diapers, doing the bum cleanup that comes with the job, and measuring temperature. The biggest learning experience was that the peeing apparatus must be covered at all times.

Reporting on behalf of the family, Razvan.

Nicholas sleeping peacefully - submarine view.

Nicholas' first Halloween - poster made by his nurses.

Nicholas' temporary home - incubator in the NICU.
In order to keep light out - yellow submarine blanket.

Mama's boy.

Nicholas getting skin to skin care (Kangaroo care).

Nicholas' first bottle meal.