Cyneburh
08-04-2006, 10:39 AM
Guess who's coming home today! It's "Gotcha Day" for us!!!
I spent the night last night in the hospital with Caleb. The nurses made an exception for me. They don't normally let parents come and spend the night next to the baby's crib. But their parent training room was being used by another mom who needed the training more.
That baby is going home on an apnea monitor so it was more important that she get the extra training in the parent training room. She was really sweet... I chatted with her last night. She's a very young mom - old enough to drive but that's about it - and her son has been her for 3 months now. She's thrilled to take him home! She's been here every single day to spend time with him.
So since I was just here to prove that Caleb could gain weight with nursing, the nurses bent the rules and let me sleep in the unit itself. Note to anyone working here... these recliners are not very comfy on your tailbone! Caleb did exactly what I expected which was to nurse every couple hours just about on the hour. He really improved his latch and was latching himself on and unlatching to try again if he didn't think it was right. And he nursed both sides rather then his previous one side only deal.
The night nurse weighed him at the beginning of her shift as she was supposed to and he'd lost some weight. But she volunteered to weigh him again after I"d spent the night with him to see what he'd done with that.
So by morning...he'd gone up 22 grams. I don't know if that was compared to the evening weight or yesterday's weight but we were thrilled. She went immediately to tell the nurse who does the planning for discharges and told me that she'd highly reccomend to the doc that he go home today.
I ran home to watch the other two kids so Eric could get to work. So I got about an hour of sleep in bed before our sitter was able to come over.
When I got back up to the hospital, the day shift nurse told me the doc had been through and had approved discharge. He's going home today!!!
We're doing the car seat test right now (I don't expect any surprises there... he's doing so well overall and his pulse-ox has always been wonderful) and Eric and I will go over the infant CPR stuff when he gets off work. (he's taking the afternoon off now since Caleb is coming home). Then the only thing left is a bath and we're going home.
I'm going to check in with Eric in a little bit but the plan right now is that if someone can meet us up here then I'll go home and get Katelyn and Conner and they'll get to help bring Caleb home.
Yay!!!!!!!
And a nurse last night told me that it was unusual for a NICU mom to go home with a totally breastfed baby. But that she was very proud of me for doing it. Caleb got offered a bottle of EBM when I ran home but refused it. :thumb He knows what's good for him!!!
While I was typing he passed the car seat test and I"m off to go grab the other two kids... they haven't been able to meet him yet because they haven't had the chicken pox vax.
Eta... apparently all the super crunchy nurses were on last night. It was so much fun!!!
I spent the night last night in the hospital with Caleb. The nurses made an exception for me. They don't normally let parents come and spend the night next to the baby's crib. But their parent training room was being used by another mom who needed the training more.
That baby is going home on an apnea monitor so it was more important that she get the extra training in the parent training room. She was really sweet... I chatted with her last night. She's a very young mom - old enough to drive but that's about it - and her son has been her for 3 months now. She's thrilled to take him home! She's been here every single day to spend time with him.
So since I was just here to prove that Caleb could gain weight with nursing, the nurses bent the rules and let me sleep in the unit itself. Note to anyone working here... these recliners are not very comfy on your tailbone! Caleb did exactly what I expected which was to nurse every couple hours just about on the hour. He really improved his latch and was latching himself on and unlatching to try again if he didn't think it was right. And he nursed both sides rather then his previous one side only deal.
The night nurse weighed him at the beginning of her shift as she was supposed to and he'd lost some weight. But she volunteered to weigh him again after I"d spent the night with him to see what he'd done with that.
So by morning...he'd gone up 22 grams. I don't know if that was compared to the evening weight or yesterday's weight but we were thrilled. She went immediately to tell the nurse who does the planning for discharges and told me that she'd highly reccomend to the doc that he go home today.
I ran home to watch the other two kids so Eric could get to work. So I got about an hour of sleep in bed before our sitter was able to come over.
When I got back up to the hospital, the day shift nurse told me the doc had been through and had approved discharge. He's going home today!!!
We're doing the car seat test right now (I don't expect any surprises there... he's doing so well overall and his pulse-ox has always been wonderful) and Eric and I will go over the infant CPR stuff when he gets off work. (he's taking the afternoon off now since Caleb is coming home). Then the only thing left is a bath and we're going home.
I'm going to check in with Eric in a little bit but the plan right now is that if someone can meet us up here then I'll go home and get Katelyn and Conner and they'll get to help bring Caleb home.
Yay!!!!!!!
And a nurse last night told me that it was unusual for a NICU mom to go home with a totally breastfed baby. But that she was very proud of me for doing it. Caleb got offered a bottle of EBM when I ran home but refused it. :thumb He knows what's good for him!!!
While I was typing he passed the car seat test and I"m off to go grab the other two kids... they haven't been able to meet him yet because they haven't had the chicken pox vax.
Eta... apparently all the super crunchy nurses were on last night. It was so much fun!!!