One Month

Well, yesterday was Watson's one month birthday and marked our one month anniversary in the NICU. I never thought we would be here this long, but here we are. I'm definitely getting frustrated and antsy, but I know that things could be much worse. When I start to get down, I try to remind myself of all of the parents out there with children who are extremely sick with things that are incurable. I know that we are extremely lucky to have two healthy children. I just have to be patient and wait for him to mature on his own time.

The reason that we are still here in the NICU is the bradycardic/desaturation spells that he is having. They have finally decided that the spells are due to reflux and are now taking some precautions to help to minimize reflux like limiting the volume of his feedings that he takes as well as holding him upright after feedings and making sure that he burps. Initially, there wasn't much indication that he was refluxing, but lately he has had a few episodes where he refluxed out of his mouth and nose. It's so pitiful:( The spells requiring stimulation (basically his saturation drops for longer than 20 seconds and they have to pick him up or move him to get it back up) are the ones that they are worried about and what they are counting. He had gone 2 days earlier this week and we were told that if he kept it up for the 5 days that we would be discharged on Sunday. Of course I told myself not to get my hopes up, but it is hard not to. Then the next morning he had another bad reflux episode and had a "spell" requiring stimulation so we went back to day 0. It's disheartening to me because I know how common reflux is in babies, and it can take forever for them to outgrow it which is annoying for any parent, but especially one who is waiting for it to improve in order to be able to bring their baby home for the first time. I'll just keep hoping that every day he is a little more mature and hoping that it will continue to improve.

On a good note, Watson now weighs 6lbs 3ozs which is great. He is really starting to fill out and look like a full term baby...which he will officially be tomorrow!

I will try to continue to keep everyone posted even though I'm starting to feel like every post is like a broken record saying the same old thing. It's so hard to keep getting asked when we are coming home when really we have no idea. Even if we get to day 4 on the spell count with plans of discharge the next day, if he has a spell, we go back to square one. I think I won't tell anyone that we are going home until we are in the car on the way home from the hospital because I'm really paranoid of jinxing ourselves!

Wishing daddy a Happy Birthday! 8/18

I love his fuzzy hair after a bath

A semi-smile!

Turning 1 month old is very tiring! 8/23