Sam is home! Praise the Lord! We brought our baby boy home Monday afternoon. We were so excited to finally be leaving the NICU after 18 days, but it was also slightly terrifying. I was finally feeling how all new parents must feel when they bring their baby home.
1. Did we really make this thing? The fact that Sam was in my belly less than 3 weeks ago and is now here and thriving (and so stinkin adorable) absolutely blows my mind.
2. Is he eating enough? I feel like I could group this question into an "is he eating/pooping/sleeping/peeing enough, but once you have a baby in the NICU, the scheduling for eating becomes something else entirely. Everything in the NICU is strictly scheduled and enforced. He would have to eat a minimum of 35cc within 20 minutes, or else they'd have to look at putting the feeding tube back in. After his crazy intense day of transitions last week (open bed, all mouth feeds, circumcision) he had 2 bad feeds. He ate 18cc and then 26cc and they had to put his feeding tube back in as a precaution. I understand it, but it doesn't make it any easier to transition from the NICU to home. It's hard for me to nurse him when he has trouble latching and gets tired and I can tell he isn't getting close to his 45cc that he eats by mouth. It's hard for me not to be a milk nazi, but we are working on it.
3. Is he still breathing? Chase and I must check him every half hour or so just to make sure he's still breathing. Again, when he was in the NICU, there was a machine right above his bed to tell us his pulse and how well he was breathing. It's wonderful to not have the alarms going off, but it can also be scary.
4. How should I dress him so he doesn't freeze? We like our apartment COLD at night. I mean put on a sweater and slippers if you get out bed because it is cold, cold. However, now that we have Sam, we are trying to keep the air at a cool temperature instead of so cold. But we still are nervous about his temperature, because once again, in the NICU we checked his temperature with every diaper change. He had to stay between 97.5 and 99.5. Our pediatrician told us only to check him if he feels too warm, so we're trying to do just that.
5. Will I ever be able to sleep more than 4 hours again? No, probably not. But that's ok. Chase and I are taking turns and trading shifts so that we can both try to get 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep in our wonderful, relaxing, oasis of a bedroom (cue the lavender essential oil, darkening curtains, and fans...it's seriously amazing and I want to go get in bed right NOW).
6. Has there ever been a cuter kid?! I mean, seriously. I can't get enough of him. His little smiles, his tiny little body, I love this kid so much already.
There are loads more questions I'm sure, but because I'm a parent of a newborn, I can't remember them haha Please continue to send prayers our way. We appreciate them and need them so much.
- Courtney
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