12 of 12: A Special Delivery Edition

For this month's 12 of 12...it's a bit different than normal. Today, January 12th, our day
is spent entirely at the hospital with our four-day-old son, who is in the Special Care
Nursery for respiratory problems.

With past 12 of 12's, the day told in 12 images is usually about our normal day-to-day
life...but we hope with this 12 of 12, to be able to share a little bit about what 'normal
life' is like right now since Thomas was born last week.

With the amount of time that revolves only around our son right now, we have gotten behind in returning phone calls and emails asking about how he's doing...so this is a great way to see a bit of what we are going through each day in helping our son recover so he can come home from the hospital.

Right now, we are planning that he will be able to come home sometime next week, after 10 days of time in the Special Care Nursery. Your continued prayers for his health are so appreciated.

Twelve snapshots from our day...

The Special Care Nursery
This place is our saving grace. An intensive care unit for newborns, staffed with the most amazing nurses and pediatricians. Each of them have taught us so much about Thomas, being new parents, and how to plan for life beyond the hospital.

Challenges to the Nursery? There is no cell phone reception, so often times we don't know that there has been a missed call for several hours. There's also a 2 person limit in each room with his increased health issues. As our first priority is getting him healthy and they believe he has pneumonia in his lungs, the docs have asked us to respect Thomas's limitations and receive visitors at home once he's 100% instead of here. While sometimes we are able to bring in a guest for a few moments, it's become easiest to start planning ahead to visitors on the farm. That also gives us something to really look forward to: Thomas at home!!

Thomas's room
The 3-lead monitor is how we follow his vitals - measuring his heartbeat, respiration, and pulse oxygen. The best part of this is that they removed his IV early this morning which makes it so much easier to feed him. Since he kept pulling the IV out of his hand, they moved it to his foot. I can handle his 3-lead wires by swaddling, but the IV attached to the pole is was really difficult to navigate with him.

The Sugar Test

After Thomas's IV was removed, he begins testing of his blood sugar to make sure that it isn't falling. His poor little heels are poked and prodded all over.

Our first self-portrait

This is the face he makes just before he delivers into his pint size diaper. He definitely makes his parents proud by how well he overachieves in this area.

Father and Son Nap Time

When I came back from lunch, I found Jonathan and Thomas sleeping as side-by-side as they can get right now. Since he spends every moment of the day under his phototherapy blanket (except for the 45 minute window for feeding every 3 hours), we don't get to hold him. He stays put in his crib and focuses on getting rid of the excess bilirubin in his system (which is causing his jaundice). His "glow worm" nickname comes from the blue and green light that shines on him nonstop.

Removing the sensors

We got to give him his first bath today (post delivery day). To prep him for the bath, we had to remove all his sensors and then tape up his leg so that the IV port wouldn't get wet. Though his is no longer receives fluids through the IV, it's still there to give him his antibiotics.

Changing his diapers

Seriously, I love this. Something I never thought I'd say. When you don't have the chance to even take care of your child's most basic needs, the chance to be able to do so is awesome. The nurses love to make fun of my interpretive diapering style (never having changed diapers before), but now I just copy their style and I am a pretty badass diaperer. Not sure how to incorporate that into my resume.

Feeding the Glow Worm
This is one of the most challenging things we do. As he needs to spend as much time as possible under his phototherapy blanket, Thomas has just 45 minutes to get disconnected from his sensors and phototherapy blanket, swaddled, fed, burped, and have his diaper changed before reattaching him to the sensors, velcro'ed into the blanket, and tucked in for a nap.

Realizing that he is just four days old, still learning to latch on, and the milk supply is just coming in (so we balance supplemental formula to get him what he needs to recover)...there's really not time to mess around. He is a champion at falling asleep mid-feeding, and then you have to wake him up to finish his food. The calories are so vital right now that it's difficult to 'let it go' until the next feeding. Both Jonathan and Mom are great for feeding him when he decided he's not ready to latch and the breast pump makes an appearance...so we keep within that 45 minute window.

I suppose that the reason Jonathan and I are finally starting to master this is because we want to beat our current record and just 'be' with him. Any bonus moments we can sneak in after he's fed are ones that we can steal away before quickly sliding him back into his blanket.

Washing Thomas's hair

Part of his bath. Got to lather him up and rinse it out...giving him this soft, fluffy head of hair. He cried the whole time...to which I reminded him that I pay good money to go to the spa, and he should appreciate his wee spa treatment. Jonathan was pleased because he knows that Thomas is not a metrosexual and has rejected the spa at a young age.

Thomas the Tiger

The lactation consultant called him a tiger for feeding. He's learning how to balance both breastfeeding and using the bottle (for either pumped milk or formula as needed) When Jonathan was feeding him, Thomas was ready to show his Papa that he could feed himself. I loved his tiny fingers wrapped around a 2 oz bottle.

The Faux Hawk

Our first hairstyle for our son. He's the McDreamy of the Special Care Nursery with great hair. How can he not be with that super attractive face he's making?

The Glow Worm Sunglow After Effect

When you pull him out from the light blanket, it's as if he's been laying out all day. He's got that relaxed feeling that you have after sitting in the sun...except he gets it without the UV rays. Lucky.