Day 15 - CPAP-less

Today was my turn to hold him again. I was so excited to get my second chance and even more enthusiastic when the nurse (same one as yesterday) told us that she spoke to our doctor and got permission for us to do skin to skin care without his CPAP on! There has been research showing that preemies who have CPAP until 32 weeks have better longterm lung health so even though he does great without the CPAP, we are sticking with it until 32 weeks (next Wednesday!). But for the hour or two that we do skin to skin care each day, they have given permission to leave the CPAP off. This made the transition from the nest to my chest so much easier because all we had to juggle were his three stomach cords, his oxygen, heart rate, breathing monitors and the tube in his mouth.

There are definitely bonuses to having the nurse who is not as deft at moving Milo - we get to be a lot more involved, she didn't even have an assistant today, just had Shelly help. It was amazing to hold him without his hat and CPAP on and he was so good at breathing on his own. I could rest my chin against his hair and feel his cheek on my chest. Shelly was soooo jealous but she'll get a turn tomorrow. When I was done, instead of lifting him off of me like they have done in the past, she had me stand up and put him back which was a way nicer transition for him. He managed to stay asleep while I set him down and didn't wake up until she put his CPAP hat back on (and then he screamed angrily at us for waking him).

Milo grabbing my necklace (good thing I got my hair cut)

Live music performance while I held him

No more pain meds! He's opening his eyes again.

He really liked holding my necklace

The contrast material is taking a while to pass so he is scheduled for that second contrast study tomorrow morning.