Best Laid Plans...

Well it's official. Noah is now 1 kg!!! Yay!!!!!!!! A 1000 grams and we thought we were home and hose when he got to 1 kg. Funny how he was no trouble at all when he was little. This little man has had a few ups and downs the last few days. Firstly his heart rate was sitting in the 190's and often set the heart rate alarm off going above 200 when he squirmed, pushed to poo, during cares, etc.... This was a worry to the nurses so they mentioned it to the doctor on call one evening and they decided do do a full blood count. The bloods came back saying he was a little anemic but otherwise perfect. They let it go and decided to reduce his caffeine.  Heart rate came down a little over a couple of days but not enough. So they did bloods again and his hematocrit levels were lower again so it was time for a transfusion. He got 18 mls of blood and he was really red for a few days. Seems to have settled down now. They'll wait about a week to do bloods again.

His heart rate settled down nicely, only issue is they don't know if it was the blood transfusion or the reduction in caffeine. Now his oxygen saturation levels are lower and he desaturates when he squirms, pushes to poo, during cares, etc... and a couple of bradycardia's are happening now when the weren't before. So they have decided to up the caffeine again. They did a chest x-ray to make sure he wasn't getting chronic lung disease or getting an infection, which he isn't thank god and they got the results to the 4 week head ultrasound and his brain is perfectly normal, no bleeds etc.

So even though we have gotten to the magical 1 kg mark, he has reminded us that there is still a long way to go, like at least another 700 grams before he can come out of the isolette!!  Then he needs to start feeding but Kim's milk supply has halved all of a sudden and she is up every three hours expressing trying to build her supply back up!! She is just a wreck with all the broken sleep!!  Kim has an appointment this Friday to start nuzzle's with the lactation consultant. Hopefully he will like it as much as he likes his dummy and the nuzzling with him will boost Kim's milk supply as well.

I know I planned on making him a home made cake but I didn't get a chance. He put on weight so quick and through all the sleepless nights and working full time and trips back and forth to the hospital, I was just exhausted!! My day starts at 6 am and finishes at 10 pm, in that time we go to the hospital twice and i work full time, but poor Kim has to set the alarm to also get up every three hours to express. She is meant to get a 5 hour break during the night but the lactation consultant told her that until her supply increases she should still get up during the night every three hours.

So I got him a lovely cake from the little passtiserie downstairs from my work. The lovely ladies there wrote "1 kg Noah" on it for me and we shared it around the entire NICU, inviting all the nurses we could find that have looked after Noah since he has been there for the past month!!  Kim cut the cake as i was kangaroo cuddling Noah.