It is a little funny to think we are now in the window that we had last settled on scheduling my C section; and I say window because we had a lot of discussion about picking a date in the 34-36 week gestational time frame. Way back when it was officially confirmed that I had a complete placenta previa, the plan was to schedule a C section at 37, maybe 38 weeks. Then with my progression/admission/bleeds we were considering 36 weeks, and last were talking 34-35 weeks in the hopes of doing this delivery in a scheduled manner before being faced with an emergency situation. I may have mentioned that during those most recent planning talks I felt less and less like I was going to make it to either of those dates as well; of course we didn't.
Two weeks ago I was 32 wks and 2 days pregnant when we welcomed baby Will 8 weeks early. Since that time he has impressed everyone who has met him, and melted our hearts. His arrival has given Lydia yet another opportunity to melt our hearts as well. Last night she was listing all the things she was going to teach him since she is the big sister: throw a ball, go on the potty, sing and dance, wear princess dresses, color, play with Charlie...and the list went on. She came to visit him again, and now that he is out of his isolette and minimal "things" on his face I think she can really see him for the little baby he is. She was talking to him and he was squeaking back which she thought was very exciting. I'm pretty sure he was actually squeaking because his next feeding was due in the following 10 minutes, but I also thought that was exciting.
So what has Will accomplished in his second week of life? He has moved to an open air crib and maintaining his body temp (with the assist of some layers of clothes/hat). He has started to "nipple" meaning he takes at least part of most of his feeding either by bottle or nursing. So far he is in the 50% range that way, and gets the rest still through his tube. Once he is able to consistently due over 80% by bottle or nursing then he gets the tube out; if he keeps gaining weight after that, then they start talking about home. So far he is back up to birth weight almost exactly at the two week mark. He still has some episodes where his oxygen levels drop, but these are infrequent and short lived. He corrects himself consistently, and the are as often a result of squirming, grunting, enjoying his bottle to fast or generally just working something out. He is off the caffeine entirely as well. And of course has a million girlfriends up here on the nursing staff.
The most common phrase in the NICU is "each baby is so different, they call the shots." This is the answer to any question you might think to ask. How soon will he learn to nipple? How long will it take to get up to 80% feeds by mouth? How often does the tube have to go back in? How long will the low oxygen events last? How will he do transitioning between bottle and nursing? Insert the same answer to each question.
So now we wait for him to keep gaining weight and learning to eat. His first few days he went from 10% to 30% to 60% of his feeds by mouth. Apparently that was beyond impressive enough that we have been cautioned several times he isn't likely to keep that pace. More likely these next few days will level off, or even go backward a little bit simply because it takes so much energy for these little ones to learn this skill. Remember usually babies grow into it while mom's still pregnant; Will needs to learn it on the fly. So we wait for him to decide his course. And as long as he stays healthy, we've got time.
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