ROCKY'S 1st WEEK

I'm already a week behind! I don't have much free time at all now that my sweet baby boy is here with us. I will do my best giving a recap as to what happened this past week and hopefully I will do better at keeping up on his updates. Actually I've come up with a plan...hands free pumping! I've never tried it before now, but I love it! Now I have about 25 minutes every 2-3 hours that I can blog.

SUNDAY:
Okay so let's see...Sunday morning the nurse came in and I asked her to check my catheter because my bladder felt full. Pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. Apparently it wasn't draining so she took it out (thank goodness)! This meant I had to get up now and well the first time I tried, which was a few hours later nothing happened, but no need to worry because according to the nurse I still had a couple of hours before there was a need to worry! Thankfully my bladder started to function properly the next time I got up. Speaking of getting up...WOW!! That first time after a c-section is crazy! I almost didn't want to lay back down knowing I would have to get up again.

Dave wheeled me up to see Rocky and he was just so cute and tiny. It was good to see him since the day before I only saw him for 10 minutes. At that point he was on the ventilator, which keeps the lungs open and basically breathes for him. They didn't want him damaging his lungs. They estimated that he would be on the ventilator for 3-5 days and that he would be in the NICU for 4-6 weeks. He also has jaundice and is now under a bilirubin light. Also, because he was squished in my belly his neck is really tight on one side and they are doing physical therapy to help lengthen it out.

His lungs are pretty underdeveloped, but still good for not having much fluid for so long. There are areas of the lungs that aren't developed and overall they are small and need to grow.

I've been pumping since yesterday and I got a little bit of colostrum. Today seems slow and I hardly got anything from my pumping today. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

MONDAY:
Dave walked up with me to the NICU and that was officially the longest walk I've taken for about 3-4 months! He had to leave to work so I told him I was okay to walk back down on my own. After visiting with Rocky for a while I made my way downstairs. I went up twice more on my own. I have never felt so out of shape! My whole body was sore and I was really worn out. Pumping went way better today! I'm starting to get more and feeling pretty good.

Rocky has had some air in the outside pocket of his lungs and they had to suck it out with a needle, but the docs say it looks like it has healed today! He has low blood pressure so they are giving him meds to keep it up. The meds make it difficult for him to breathe on his own so it's a good thing he is on the ventilator. He does take some breathes on his own but he does tire easily so there are times when the machine does all his breathing for him. He has been trying to pull his tubes out so they put a blanket under his chin to block him from finding his face. His jaundice levels are about the same. Overall,  not too bad given our circumstances.

TUESDAY:
Rocky was taken off of his blood pressure meds late tonight. He's been doing a good job maintaining his blood pressure up! I'm hoping he stays off of it, but we will see what happens. His oxygen is at 21%, which is what we breathe regularly! He will be weaned off the vent and put on another machine soon. When I saw him today he was a bit fussy because they had just worked on his neck and he doesn't like that. His neck is getting better so at least it's working. I held his arm over his little chest to help him calm down. It was a very sweet experience. He continues to fight and he's doing great!

Today was a whole lot easier to get out of bed. It's getting easier to walk to the NICU but I'm still really slow. In preparation to go home I got my staples taken out. I have to say the anticipation was definitely worse than the actual event! I guess because I've seen how staples are removed from paper it just freaked me out a bit, but it wasn't painful at all! Dave came in the evening to pick me up. I had most of the things packed and ready to go and he just had to get a few things. I waited about 30 min for my nurse to finally get to my room so she could discharge me. I was a bit annoyed by that. Dave had time to load everything on a wheelchair, take it to the car and get back to my room. I finally told him to just go see Rocky and I would meet him up there. When I got up there we stayed for a little bit and then we headed home. When I got home Dave went to get the boys as I got out of the car and they came running out! Oh and let's not forget that was my first time in a car in over 10 weeks, yes it was weird! Okay, so when I got in the house the boys and Dave made me a welcome home mama sign and it was so cute. Lincoln was very proud and I was too! He traced inside all of the letters and they worked really hard on it. Oliver wanted me to pick him up and was a little sad when I couldn't, but Dave did and then he was fine. We hung out a while and then put them to sleep. After that Dave and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things that I needed. Lots of walking and oh I forgot to mention that with all the fluids I have been ridiculously swollen! That night was pretty difficult to transition to a regular bed that doesn't move up and down as I need, but I did alright.

WEDNESDAY:
Today I was scheduled for an induction, but as with most things with this pregnancy he decided to come out on Saturday. We went to the hospital to take him some breastmilk and to my surprise he has continued to keep his blood pressure up and they are now feeding him through a tube! Unfortunately he already used all the milk I had pumped so it's a good thing we brought more! They told us that he might come off the ventilator soon! He is doing amazing! I'm so proud of him, he is working so hard and it shows. Oh and now that he is off the ventilator and the tubes are out of his throat I was able to hear his little voice for the first time! He has a cute little voice.

Rocky got to meet his brothers today! Lincoln has been asking to see him so we took the boys today. We had to go to a WIC appt to get a pump and to a doc appt for me. Dave kept the boys entertained while I got things done. At the doctors he looked at my incision and it looked red and felt warm. He gave me a shot and boy did that sting! I thought the steroids were bad, but they are nothing compared to what I got! He asked me to come back tomorrow to look at it and he gave me a prescription for oral antibiotics.

Okay so back to the boys. We got to the hospital and we went to the break room. I stayed with the boys while Dave took them in one at a time. I can't pick them up so he had to take them. Apparently he got changed to cpap today and it looks like a fighter pilot face mask with the tube coming up. He also has his eyes covered because of the jaundice lights. When Lincoln saw him he asked, "where's his face?" He was done pretty quickly and then wanted to go back to me. Oliver wanted to stay longer so he took his whole 5 minutes. It was a good little visit.

THURSDAY:
I woke up feeling pretty good today. By 8:45 a.m. I had already had my morning pump session, made the boys breakfast, hung out with them for a little and overall just felt very productive. It's a good start! I also feel like my milk is coming in nicely. I'm still swollen, but I think it may be going down.

After my doc appt, which I had to get another shot, we went to the hospital to see Rocky. We were very surprised by all of his changes! They took him off of cpap because they said he was very unhappy with it so they decided to put him on the cannula and he is doing great! So now he is breathing completely on his own and there are no more machines to help him keep his lungs open. Way to go little buddy. He is continuing to do well with his tube feedings although he has lost some weight. He is low 4lbs, but I bet he will be back up soon. He is still fighting the jaundice, but they changed his light to a light pad so now he looks like a glow worm. He now gets to be swaddled and he seems to like it! They were able to take his IV out of his umbilical cord, so now he just has a picc line in his thigh. He does have a pretty good cry the nurses say, but that tells me that his lungs are getting better! I'm so happy with how well he is doing.

FRIDAY:
Today was my first outing. I couldn't go see the baby in the morning so Dave took him his milk. After work Dave and I met Jon & Jhana and Tim and Tam at Texas roadhouse. We were going to go see Rocky before a show, but we ended up not having time so we went home so I could pump and then went to the musical that Sabrina and my father-in-law were in. During the show we got a call from the hospital and Dave called them back. Everything was okay, they just wanted to know when we were going to be there, but let me just say waiting to hear why the NICU is calling is the worst feeling. We headed out right after the show, but our headlights were both out so we got a ride home so we could get our other car.

We finally made it to the hospital and when we got there we were very surprised when the nurse asked us if we wanted to hold Rocky! Oh my goodness I've been waiting for that and I was so ready! I sat down and as she was getting him ready I started balling because I was so happy...I was finally going to be able to hold my son! When she handed him to me it was the best feeling in the world. He was crying and then she asked if I wanted to do skin to skin and as soon as I laid him on my chest he calmed right down, as if he knew mommy is holding me and I've been waiting for this.

While I was in the hospital I kept seeing a huggies commercial with a pregnant lady talking to her baby and at the end it says something about how the mom is the first one to give her baby a hug and to let the second be comfy (talking about the diaper). Well every time I saw it I thought...LIES! I'm not going to be able to give him his first hug or hold, I don't even know when that will be! So when I finally got to hold him it was wonderful. He is so small and I was very intimidated by all of his wires and lines he has, but it was great. Dave held him for a while and then we had to put him back because of him needing to be under the light. Best way to end his first week.