Day 44 - Waiting Game

Milo weighs 5lbs 3oz. He has been gaining about 2oz a day! Now we wait. He is working on overcoming his anemia however it is slow going and the doctor tells us he probably won't have completely overcome it even by the time they send us home. Since making red blood cells is slow work and he is growing so quickly and thus increasing his need for red blood cells at the same time his body is trying to create them. The caffeine they gave him helped him get through the worst of it (or so it would appear). He has another test on Thursday to see how his levels look. Even a slight increase in his numbers will have a huge effect on his energy level. For now, he has more energy every day and has been cleared to try to oral feedings 3-4 times a day. Considering he eats 8 times a day, we are pretty excited to be "halfway" there (he hasn't yet been awake for 4 feeds a day but we have permission to try as soon as he is. He usually is awake for 3 of them).

Better not try to steal my baby, he's wearing a security anklet

We had our obligatory discharge class on Wednesday. We learned how to position him to sleep, how to use his car seat properly and other tips they have to tell us before they send us home just to mark off their list that they told us (stuff that should be common sense but you never know like don't shake your baby and don't leave the baby in the car). We also had a meeting with Milo's doctor which was much more individualized. She told us that based on his progress, she expects him to be home between 37 and 40 weeks (he's 35 weeks as of Wednesday). Though it was good to have a chance to ask all our questions, she stressed me out by telling us a lot of worst case scenarios about his hearing, lungs, future health etc. She really could have done a better job to reassure us since Milo is not exhibiting any problem behavior yet. We understand that there are a lot of things Milo will have a higher risk of encountering because he was premature but boy was I more stressed after that meeting than before.

Sleeping, the #1 job we've assigned Milo

And I was stressed before the meeting anyway. I finally realized why I am so uncomfortable here. I thought it was because I didn't like the nurses looking over our shoulders all the time and being the expert on my baby even though we know him really well and are able to tell them things about his behavior. But it turns out what I really don't like is how every nurse has a different method and rules so I spend each shift learning how this particular nurse prefers we do things and then the next one comes in and tells me I'm doing it all wrong (they are never mean about it, but I am perhaps overly sensitive to doing things wrong). In any case, I will be so relieved to be home where Shelly and I are the experts in Milo's life and no one will be coming in and telling us we should hold him this way or that, feed him less because he's tired, not open his isolette ourselves because parents aren't allowed (despite the fact that about half the nurses encourage us to do it). These are all things we know and can figure out for ourselves with Milo's help. The nurses here are used to parents who just dropped in every now and then and are not very good at reading the baby's cues so it makes sense they would behave the way they do.

Of course he stopped smiling as soon as I pulled out my camera