Thursday, July 19, 2012

July 19th 2012

Shoo. Not quite sure where to start this...

In exactly a week from now Steve was supposed to arrive.

I'm lucky to have him lying here next to me in his pram - a whole week earlier!

My apologies for going quiet on the blog, but mom and I have been playing the adjustment game.

On Saturday morning (Swanepoel was in Cape Town again) Dr Mears did her rounds at 05h30 and when we arrived later in the morning, Sr Loveness (one of Steve's favorites) told me that she had good news. Steve was being sent home the next day!

This was a little unexpected and perhaps unsettling for Bernice and I. For nearly three weeks Steve had a dedicated nurse overseeing him 24 hours a day. Now they're sending him home with Mouse and I to take care of him. Are we ready? Will we manage?

His discharge comes with a whack of instruction from the doctors and nurses. The first of which was probably the most unsettling and even now still tends to scare us. We were told that even with the Angel Care baby monitor, we needed another sleep apnea monitor that we would need to attach to his nappy. The Snuza (pronounced snoozer) makes one hell of a noise if he stops breathing and then kicks into vibration mode and wakes him up. The side effect of this unit is that it tends to stop mom and dad's heart!

Anyway, on Saturday afternoon Bernice and I decided to celebrate our great news. So for about the second time ever we had a sit down meal at the Wimpy. Beautiful :-) This was followed by a big shop at Wollies for 'supplies'!

Before we knew it, Sunday morning arrived and Bernice and I went to the hospital early. We were shown how to bath him, etc and then it was home time. We were home at about 10h00 and it was bliss. Sheer nervous bliss, but bliss none the less.

Granny, Grandad, Candi and Kelly stopped by for an afternoon visit (in the case of Kelly and Candi - more like an introduction).

Bernice and I didn't eat on Sunday and didn't sleep either. Not because we ate to much at the Wimpy the day before, but because this was stressful business! He had a blocked nose which seemed to be getting progressively worse, and this made feeding him harder too. Having to give your new child a saline nasal spray every three hours is tricky on the first day.

By Monday paranoia had gotten the better of us and Bernice decided to take Steve to the doctor. At
R 900.00 for each visit, she was thrilled to see him. She prescribed some drops for his nose and advised us to get a nasal suction tube. This is a device that you put into his nose and then suck to get all the gue out. Yummy. She suggested he come back on Friday (no surprises there)....

Anyway loads has happened between Monday and now. All of which is progressive and makes me exceptionally happy and proud, but none of which I'll write about. Mainly because he's getting niggley now and i am going to pick him up, but also because this is now our time. Our special time as a new family.

Every one's prayers, well wishes, thoughts and gifts have been overwhelming and extremely supportive. From the dinners that granny and ouma have prepared and bought for us, to the literally hundreds of phone calls and messages.With the greatest amount of sincerity, we thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

I end by saying that in 12 hours, I've been pooed on, weed on and sucked sloppy boegers from Steve's nose. I love him so much it's almost unreal and i wouldn't change my new life for anything in the world.

It also needs saying that this child has the most fabulous mom and I'm real proud of her too. You can tell how much he loves her.....


Thursday, July 12, 2012

12th July 2012

Couldn't see Steve again today!

When I called in this evening to chat to the sister on duty, Sr Nikki answered. I said "Sr. hows Stevie doing?"
In her very heavy african accent she replied "Eh... Daddy, he's beautiful. He was promoted to a Bassi Net today". That's a bassinet bye the way.
This is great news. From what it seems, when the babies are placed into a bassinet from a bed, they're starting to get them ready for dispatch. According to Swanepoel, if he stays on his current path, we'll be home by about Tuesday.
I wish i didn't get excited about these things, because they can so easily be a let down, but i can't help it.
Anyway, for now I'm just super excited to see my little buddy tomorrow. Hopefully by next weekend, him and i will be on the couch watching Toy Story 17.

Bernice tried breast feeding today. Steve fell asleep. I'm going to the hospital early tomorrow. The purpose is two fold. One to feed him (not from my breast) and two, to have a proper chat to him about boobs in general, but specifically his moms!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

11 July 2012

Last night they fed Steve with his bottie on every alternate feed. They were still using the naso gastric tube for the other feeds. This morning I heard that they were going to try and feed every feed with the bottle. I then got a call saying they had removed the tube. I was properly irritated because I figured that a smarter plan would have been to check that he tolerates every feed from the bottle before removing the tube. Fortunately I hadn't shat on Swanepoel before I found out that in fact Steve had removed the tube :-) Swanepoel has also decided to keep him on the lights over night again. His Billiruben count was substantially lower today than it was yesterday, but not low enough. I'm pleased with that decision.

I wasn't able to see him today again, and they still don't want me coming. I'm getting properly bored.

Bernice says that our little tiger is getting much stronger, which I'm really happy about!

The cardiologist did an "echo" examination today and has reported a "clean bill of health" for his heart. They've reduced the heart medication (Lanoxin) that they've been giving him and will stop it completely on Friday. I had been led to believe that he's still be on this medicine quite long term. So I'm happy about that too.

So basically he's got another day or two of physio and the nebulizer and then Mouse needs to pass her feeding and bathing test to their satisfaction and then it's home time. I don't think that we'll be letting them be the judge of the bathing test.

I'll be honest, I'm a bit drained with all this medical rubbish, and I'm missing my boy. I'm going to bed now.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

10th July 2010

Today was a relatively stable day. After having been put back on the oxygen yesterday, they stopped it again this morning and his 'sats' (oxygen saturation levels) have been good.

He's back under the lights again and this has frustrated the shit out of me. Once again I told them that he was yellow yesterday morning and again a day later they respond. I haven't been able to see him today because I'm still sick and sadly I suspect tomorrow will be the same. This is probably driving my frustration levels and impatience.

Bernice says that he was much calmer today and less niggley. She was very upset last night cause Steve looked really unhappy.

I think this business of living between our house and the hospital is tough going on her :-(

Anyway, we carry on down this road and look forward to getting out of hospital and back home.

His feet look like mine. What a boooooi.



Monday, July 9, 2012

9th July 2012

Today was a bit of a downer :-( After being taken of all drips and pipes and oxygen yesterday, they've had to give him nasal oxygen again. He's got a huge amount of phlegm on his chest (something I noticed and advised them of on Saturday and Sunday) and as such he's coughing a lot and putting pressure on his little lungs. They've sent a sample of sputum in for virus tests, but that will only be back in two days. They're also doing physio and putting him on a nebulizer (produces moist air) every three hours.

He's swallowing quite a bit of phlegm and as a result he's throwing up, so they reduced his food intake a bit. Let's hope this phlegm books out real fast.

I was a little bleak today because I kind of feel that if they had listened to me on Saturday already, we wouldn't necessarily have had to take a step backwards. Anyway, from what I read, this is all par for the course and these ups and downs can be expected. The two lessons for the day are: Patience for me; Mr Preston is always right for them.

I really do just want the little guy to get healthy and strong ASAP, because this NNICU vibe is crappy.

I have a cold and have been asked not to go back for the next day or two :-(

Let's hope tomorrow is a bit better. Correction. Tomorrow will be better.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

7 - 8 July 2012

Steven is starting to show characteristics of both mom and dad.

Hi sense of humor is definitely from mom. Yesterday he thought it'd be funny to take out his drip. Twice. Eventually they decided to up his feeding quite substantially to make up for the fluids that he isn't getting from the drip. He's eating like a machine, but still needs some practice with his bottie. So that was the end of another pipe.

Mom's still producing milk like a Jersey cow. It's gotten to the point that our freezer no longer has place for my game biltong. It looks a bit like the yogurt isle at the Spar. Avent and Nuk are also loving all the business from the Preston's by way of milk containers.

Anyway, boredom and how quickly it happens is a trait from dad. Last night he got bored of the nasal oxygen. He called Sr Lorraine and said "Out with these pipes please darling". He's a show off and a charmer....Must be his mom. ;-)

I got to hold him for over an hour yesterday. He loved it. The puffiness has also gone down a bit so he's managing to open his eyes - which are still slightly yellow from the Jaundice. I suspect that mom prefers the yellow to the red that they'll be after golf weekends away with dad in years to come :-)

I'm so proud of him so I keep buying him toys (not my best bit of parenting - I know), but he's gonna love these things. I found one yesterday which I think we may be able to hang above his bed in ICU.

Here are some pics of Tiger. The bottom one is my favorite!


Friday, July 6, 2012

July 6th - 20h00

Today was OK. They still have the oxygen at 21%, but they managed to reduce the flow from 2L to 1L. They had to go back to 2L later on though.

Stevie had two bottles today and his feeding has been increased to 35ml per feed. They'll move this up to 40ml tonight hopefully. Some of the feeds are still through the nasal gastric tube because he gets tired of his bottle and then falls asleep. The sister then sits him up, he burps like he's had a big beer and he carries on sucking again.

They also had to put him back on the sun bed cause his Biliruben count is high. No real surprises for dad there.

Otherwise he's doing well. Progress is gentle for the time being, but that's fine. Dr. Swanepoel was back today and she's super happy. So are we :-)

Here's a picture of Steve on the tanning bed. Notice the cool shades. Oh yeah. He's 49 cm in length.