Big boy!

Things are pretty much the same for Watson. He is continuing to work on eating, and he is getting better at it every day. They have started to reintroduce the bottle to him when I am not there to breastfeed. He is doing well with both, but he still gets tired. He usually eats really well at one feeding and then the next he is still worn out and doesn't eat as well. He'll need to get up to eating 80-100% of his feedings by mouth before they will take out his NG tube. I think right now he is only at 25%, but he is doing better every day. He is continuing to grow and has broken through the 5lb mark, last night weighing in at 5lbs 1oz. The other thing that they are monitoring are "spells" where his heart rate and oxygen levels drops. These are pretty infrequent for him, and usually only last for a second or two, but he has to go for 5 days with none of these spells before he can go home. He only had one yesterday, but that will buy us at least another five days. Hopefully they will stop soon.

Otherwise things are the same and we're trying to juggle spending time with him and Sophia. Sophia continues to love looking at Watson's pictures on our phones. Yesterday morning she was kissing his picture and even attempted to give him some of her milk! I can't wait until she can meet him in person...I think she's going to be a great big sister!

Look who's in a big boy crib!

Sleepovers!

I started back to work Monday, so I have been staying the night with Watson at the NICU and making visits during the day. It's not bad, particularly now that we have a nice big room, and I love being close to him all night. It's harder this time around since we have another child at home, but we are making it work. Yesterday I went home after work to see Sophia and came back up to the hospital after she went to bed. That is a little tiring though. Today Nick met me and we had a lunch date in Watson's room, and then for dinner, he picked up Sophia, and we had dinner near Vandy. It worked out well, because we got to spend time together and I got to see Sophia, but I didn't have to rush home and back. We've really been trying to keep Sophia in her normal routine. She has no idea what's going on, and when we bring home Watson it is going to be a total shock for her. She loves looking at his pictures on the iPhone, but I'm pretty sure that she doesn't understand that he's real!

Watson continues to do well. He is up to 39cc/feeding, and starting today, they want me to breastfeed more often. He has actually done really well with the breastfeeding, and the doctors would rather get this established rather than push the bottle too much so not to confuse him. They will now feed him his feeding through NG when I'm not breastfeeding and then supplement the ones that I am breastfeeding based on how long he nurses for. He has gained weight and tonight he weighed 4lbs 12ozs...almost back to his birth weight!

Last night they started weaning the temperature on his isolette and he has been maintaining his body temperature well, so this afternoon they popped the top. If he continues to maintain his temperature for 24hrs, they will probably try him in a regular crib tomorrow! Another step closer to coming home!

Overall, the news continues to be good, and he is just feeding and growing. We hope he'll be out of the NICU in a week or 2, but it all depends on his progress with his feedings. I'm sure he'll figure it out on his own time, and we'll be patient until then.

Sorry for the delay

I guess my keeping up with the blog has not been so good.  It's harder once I was discharged from the hospital because now I'm running back and forth from home to the NICU.  My mom was here all week and just left yesterday.  She was a gigantic help with cooking, cleaning, helping out with Sophia, and trekking to and from the hospital several times a day. Watson is doing great.  He was started on oral feeds and was taking them wonderfully, but now that they have increased his feeds so much, his is starting to tire out before finishing his whole feeding.  They put down an NG tube today to give him the portions of the feeding that he doesn't finish.  He is up to 31cc/feeding or just over an ounce.  He was also started on 10cc of Pedialyte per feeding today to help with hydration because his IV has come out and they have decided not to restart it for fluids.  This is something new that they are doing at the NICU to avoid IVs in babies who are only getting fluids and nothing else via their IV.  It is fine by me because I hate seeing those IVs in his little hands and the arm board looks so uncomfortable.  Also, now that he doesn't have the gigantic arm board for the IV, he can wear clothes!!

His bilirubin did end up getting a little above the comfort zone and he was on the bili lights for about a day and a half.  It is now down to an ok range, and they do not expect that they will have to put him back on them since he is now eating so much more. He has lost some weight and now weighs 4lbs 6ozs, which is not unexpected, but we hope the increase in feedings will get his weight trending in the right direction.

We also got moved to a new room in the NICU which is a corner room/suite!  It is soooo much nicer than the cramped room we were in before.  The nurse told me there had to be some perks for being an employee there!  It's really nice because I'll be going back to work this week like I did for Sophia, so I'll be up in the NICU pumping several times a day and will probably spend the night there most nights since I'll have to be at the hospital by 8am anyway.  I'm hoping that I'll only be back working for a week or 2, but it is a good way to save up my maternity leave days so that I can use them when he is home and needs me 24/7.

I'll try to be better about updating (hopefully daily) so that I won't have so much to say!  Here are some pics from the last few days!

 Holding my boy!

 Finally opening his eyes

 Our family minus 1

 My first time feeding him

 Getting a suntan!

 Sweet boy!

Moving up...or down

Today was another great day for our little guy! My mom and I arrived at the NICU this afternoon about 3:30, and when we got there, we were told that they had just moved Watson to the step down NICU.  This was awesome news, but somewhat unexpected, as we were not told earlier in the day that he was being considered for a move.  The NICU that he is in now is the least critical for babies who are very stable.  They have their own room and it makes visits a  little easier and more private.  The parents also have the option of staying the night with their babies as well.  I know some of the move was in part due to the fact that they needed the space in the NICU he was in for sicker, incoming babies, but it is still a sign that he is doing very well.

Today, they also started feeding Watson through his feeding tube.  They won't attempt to feed him by mouth until he is closer to 34 weeks gestation, but this is a great way to get his gut moving.  I am pumping and providing breastmilk which they have started feeding him 3cc/feeding every 3hr, which is an extremely small amount, but they will increase it in small amounts daily until he reaches a goal which is based on his weight.  As he reaches his goal, they will be able to just rely on his oral feedings and then they will be able to taper off and eventually discontinue the amount of IV fluids he is getting.

This morning, his bilirubin was checked and was in the normal range, but they will continue to monitor it and will put him on the bili lights if it gets too high.  This is a common and almost expected issue for all preemies and they will just keep an eye on it this first week.

Here are a few pics from today.

 Looking better since I got my hair washed!

Rocking with Mom Mom

Round 2

Sunday July 22nd at 32 weeks 1 day into this pregnancy, Sophia and I got up early and headed out to watch daddy do a triathlon near downtown Nashville. It was pretty warm and muggy, so we mostly hung out in the shade. I told Nick afterward that I felt like I had done the triathlon myself. I think the heat kind of got to me, and I was exhausted from not sleeping well the 2 nights before. So the rest of the day I tried to take it easy and drank tons of fluids. I felt ok the rest of the day and was looking forward to hitting the sack early. I was kind of uncomfortable that evening as we ate dinner and watched TV, but this was becoming a common occurrence in the evenings during this pregnancy. About 9pm, I got myself ready for bed and was reading a book on my iPad. Nick passed out quickly as he had had a long day as well. About 9:30 I started to have crampy pain similar to contractions that I had with Sophia, but I had begun to have these occasionally at night as I went to bed, and usually it was just one or two and then subsided. This time, though, they were coming frequently, and were more painful than others I had during this pregnancy. I started to watch the clock and time these, because unfortunately this is pretty much what happened with Sophia who was born at 32 weeks 3 days. The contractions were coming about 5 minutes apart despite drinking water, changing position, etc. I got up and went in the bathroom and started getting some thing together, because I knew that I would need to go to the hospital to get checked out. I woke Nick up around 10:30 and told him I thought we needed to head to the hospital. Sophia was sound asleep and of course, because I was trying to be optimistic about this pregnancy going full term, I had just begun to think about arrangements that I would make for Sophia especially in a scenario like this where we would have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night. We called Eric and May, friends of ours who live down the street, but didn't get an answer and just decided to take Sophia with us to the hospital and then try to make arrangements there if indeed I was going to be admitted and have to stay. In the car ride, the contractions became a little more painful. We got to Labor and Delivery about 11pm and got settled into triage. The contractions were becoming stronger and stronger, and by the time I was checked at midnight, I was already dilated to 4cm. After being told this, I did not have high hopes that they would be able to stop the labor. With Sophia, I was 1 cm when I was first checked and I received Magnesium Sulfate to try to stop the labor, but I ended up having her a little under 24 hours later. Given that I was 4cm, I didn't even think I would be able to get the Magnesium, but they were trying to get it ordered just to try. I got moved to a labor and delivery room and by this time the contractions were very frequent and painful. Nick got in touch with Eric who was on call at the hospital and May ended up coming and getting Sophia from the hospital and took her home when we knew this baby was definitely coming. When I hadn't gotten the Mag yet, and the contractions were becoming unbearable, I pretty much told the staff that we could probably forget the Magnesium and maybe we should call anesthesia so I could get an epidural because I was pretty sure this baby was coming soon! By the time anesthesia got there, the contractions were one after the other and terribly painful and as I was sitting up getting the epidural, I was having tons of pressure. I kept telling everyone that I was pretty sure that I was at 9 or 10cms even though I was at 4 only an hour before. I figured they just thought I was an exaggerating/complaining woman in labor, but sure enough, when the epidural was done, they checked me and I was 10cm and complete...it was time to have this baby. My water hadn't broken yet, and they were going to just let it break naturally, but the baby's heart rate was starting to drop during contractions and they figured that the cord was wrapped around its neck, so they decided to break my water then so that we could have this baby. They broke my water, and 3 pushes later little Watson Stewart Miller was born at 1:36am, July 23rd! We didn't know the sex of the baby this time around, and I had been feeling boy in the last few weeks, but you never know. When he was born, he didn't cry immediately , and Nick and I were waiting for that first cry before we even thought to look down and see if we had a boy or a girl. After a few seconds, he let out a good wail, and then we focused our attention elsewhere, and sure enough, he was a little boy! The NICU team was in the room, and they grabbed him quickly to do their assessment. I could hear him crying and knew that was a good sign. Because I progressed so quickly, I didn't have time to get the steroid injections that they normally give to help the premature babies lungs mature. With Sophia I did get these even though the first had to be given a little early. The neonatologist spoke to us quickly and told us that he was retracting and grunting a little bit, and that they would get a chest x-ray and would be giving him a dose of surfactant which helps to expand the lungs. They have to give the surfactant through an endotracheal tube, but she told us that they would just put it in, give the dose, and then remove it. She told us that they would put him on a CPAP machine which gives positive pressure air through his nose to help expand the lungs, and they wouldn't intubate him unless he needed a second dose of surfactant. She also made the comment that we were clearly NICU veterans, because we were way too calm! Nick and I weren't taking anything for granted, and knew that things could still go wrong, but we were so impressed with the Vandy NICU team the last time, that we knew our little guy couldn't be in better hands. It was 4:30am by the time I got cleaned up, moved to another room, and Nick and I were able to make it over to the NICU to get a better look at our little guy. It was definitely like deja vu walking into that same room where Sophia spent the first week of her life. Watson is on the opposite end of the room, so at least we have a little change of scenery! He looked great, he was very pink, and the nurse told us that they had already weaned the oxygen completely off on the CPAP, so now it was just providing room air, but with some pressure to expand the lungs. She also told us that they would try to take him off the CPAP later in the day...great news! He looks a lot like his big sister did with a head full of dark hair. The CPAP machine was covering his nose, but I thought he had Sophia's mouth. He's also bigger than Sophia was weighing in at 4lbs 13oz and 2 inches longer than Sophia at 18in. He's actually huge compared to lots of the other babies in the NICU. At about noon yesterday, they removed the CPAP, and though they were initially going to put him on a little bit of nasal cannula oxygen, when they took the CPAP off, he was satting 100%, so they decided to just leave him off of oxygen all together. He did great basically at 100% all day on room air, so hopefully the breathing difficulties are over and we can work on the next order of business! Sorry this was quite long winded...have to find something to do during a 4am pumping session! I'll try to keep up the blog like I did with Sophia because it is a much easier way to get everyone caught up to speed without having to send out multiple emails to family and friends. Keep us in your prayers as we hope for another fairly uneventful NICU stay! P.S I just noticed when I previewed this that it didn't separate my paragraphs. I typed this from my IPad, and it must be a little hiccup. Sorry because it makes it hard to read particularly since I blabbed so much! Also, I can't seem to add a picture. I'll try to do the rest of the posts from our computer and I'll be sure to add some pics!

1 Year Pictures