It’s been a while!
And this is just a drive-by post.
BUT, I had to share that, today, a whole 4 days shy of 3 months, old, Sam has graduated out of newborn clothes…0-3 months, here we come!
He gets weighed again tomorrow…we’re pulling for 8.5 lbs, but we’ll see how close we get 🙂
You are nonchalant about being covered in any variety of bodily fluids.
Your baby spits up, somehow gets it on the back of his head, and your first instinct is to take a picture.
After dressing the baby, you find yourself contemplating which pacifier best goes with his outfit.
You call the after-hours nurse line at least once a week (thank goodness they are so patient!)
And, how to know you’re and OVERTIRED mom:
Two times in the last week, Peter has walked into the room and been greeted by “wait! where’s Sam?”…while I’m nursing.
Whoops, almost forgot what day it was…
Sorry this isn’t well focused. Peter finally showed me that there is a “close up” setting on the camera. That should help.
How old is your baby?
Six weeks.
Oh my goodness, he’s so little!
Yes.
Was he premature?
Yes, five weeks.
How much did he weigh when he was born?
3 pounds, 4 ounces.
Oh wow. Did he have to stay at the hospital?
Yes, for two and a half weeks.
But he’s doing okay now?
Yes, he’s doing great.
I had a aunt/cousin/sister who had a preemie.
Oh.
He’s just so little!
Yes.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Today is Sam’s official “due date” — which will be the point from which the pediatrician measures his development of motor skills, cognitive ability, etc. for about a year or so. So while he’s been with us for 5 weeks, his official “adjusted age” is 1 day.
It’s hard to believe that in 5 weeks we went from this:
to this:
All it took was many many trips to Meriter, a dozen or so virtually sleepless nights, and a little bit of adventure (in the form of ‘let’s take the baby to State Street/Barriques/Dan’s soccer game in West Bend/etc.”)
Now if we can just get him to stay awake during the day and sleep at night. But maybe that’s a lot to expect 🙂
Please excuse the Eddie Izzard video playing in the background…
Also, I promise I’ll become a better videographer.
After five and a half hours of sitting and waiting, they let us take a baby home from the hospital. OUR baby.
What were they thinking? He is tiny. And we can’t possibly know enough about babies to be parents. But the discharge checklist says we do, so I guess we just trust the nurses and carry on. So far we haven’t screwed anything up that I can tell…
Friday: Went to the clinic. Took a blood test and never left: instead, checked into the hospital, diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and HELPP syndrome (Don’t google that, it’s scary). Got hooked up to a million tubes and began a series of a million blood draws.
Saturday: Docs decided around 8:30 a.m. to stop attempting induction and move toward a cesarean. Turned off heparin to get my blood back to clotting enough for surgery. Didn’t work. Tried to reverse it with an injection. Didn’t work. Got a transfusion of fresh frozen plasma. Worked enough — Samuel Wesley Clark was delivered at 7:30 p.m. Peter went with him to the NICU while I woke up from the anaesthisia.
Sunday: Spent in recovery, still hooked up to magnesium IV. Watched the video Peter took of Sam about 5,000 times. Sunday night at 8:30, the IV got turned off and I got to eat solids. Attempted (supervised) to get out of bed, passed out, got revived and moved back to bed by a team of freaked-out nurses.
Monday: Made it from bed into a wheelchair, and made it upstairs to meet my little boy and hold him for the first time. Sam was off of breathing support and just had an oxygen cannula.
Tuesday: Slowly started getting stronger, and Sam did too. He’s breathing totally on his own and starting to eat breastmilk from a bottle when he is awake for feedings, I’m walking instead of wheeling up to the NICU and taking unsupervised showers.
Wednesday: Got discharged from the hospital. Who knew how exhausting going home could be?! Met Sam’s neonatologist and got the scoop on his care — he’ll gradually get to eat more as his digestive system gets stronger, and is self-weaning from the isolette to the crib.
Thursday: Took my first nap with Sam in my arms doing kangaroo care, and got to introduce him to the breast while he was fed through the tube. Realized I spend 4 hours a day pumping breast milk for a kid who eats about 1-1.5 ounces in the same period.
Friday: Sam is almost one week old! He’s increased his feedings to 10mL every three hours. I spend the mornings snuggling with him and Peter and I go do evening prayer in the hospital with him after dinner. Every time we leave him there, it’s a little bit harder…but we trust that he’s coming home soon.
Happy one week, little Sammy boy!
“I mean, a legal system based on baseball just seems bizarre!”
Adventures in Adulthood 