This little guy took us by surprise coming a couple weeks early but we were prepared for having the fact that he would be making his arrival via c-section. My biggest concern was having and opportunity to have skin-to-skin contact immediately. Of course, with him being early I knew this may be one detail that was taken off the table.
During delivery, I could hear that amazing sound of heating him cry for the 1st time and all I could do was lay there an pray that he was doing well enough that they would bring him over for more than just a quick glance.
He did amazing and they were able to bring him over and I held him from the OR into recovery and got a few minutes there until he started showing some signs of distressed breathing. They took him to the nursery where he continued having issue to the point that he “forgot” to breath and it became pretty clear that he was going to be a NICU resident after all.
The nurses mentioned trying to get a bottle immediately and because I had them write-in that I did not want him to have formula, I was given a little bit of a hard time about him being too premature to latch and us not having any breast milk yet. I asked for lactation to be sent over. They couldn’t get me a pump fast enough but I was able to hand express 10mls, just enough for a single feed. He wasn’t able to take the feeding because of being placed on oxygen but I was happy I had put my foot down about the formula bottle.
Since then, we have really focused on getting his breathing and eating under control.
Day 1: Little man was placed on a high flow nasal cannula and was having quite a few apnea episodes. He was given an IV and just a little glucose water but no milk was offered day 1. He gave the nurses a run for their money being a little feisty and having a difficult time settling himself. We were told he had quite the “temper”. No surprise that my child would come out feisty…again!
Day 2: He maintained 5 liters of flow in the nasal cannula and was bouncing between 23-27% oxygen and still had some apnea episodes but definitely a marked improvement. They started tube feeding him 5mls of breast milk. The 1st feed he tolerated great with no residuals (no undigested milk left over before the next feed). The 2nd and 3rd feed he didn’t digest much of anything. They attempted a 4th feed and he did great and never looked back!
Day 3: little guy had a fantastic day! His high flow was dropped from 5L to 3L and dropped from 27% to 21% (the % of oxygen we get from breathing normal, room air). He had no apnea episodes for the day. His feeds were bumped from 5mls to 10mls in the afternoon and is giving Mama quite the challenge to keep up with his feeding needs but I’ve been staying on pace. They attempted to turn his heater down and see if he could maintain his temperatures on his own but he struggled a bit so he’s back under the heat. I’m so proud of how well he’s done the last few days. Big steps makes me a happy Mommy!
