7 pounds!

Parker is now over 7 pounds! I weighted him last night and he was 7pounds 1 oz.  When I was burping him today I noticed he finally has fat enough cheeks to jiggle. He also finally has a little belly so maybe now shorts will stay up.

I will post some pictures of him once I get a chance to take more.

First Doctors visit

Monday Parked went to see the Pediatrician.  He weights 6 pounds 8 oz and is 21 inches long.  That means he gained 6oz in 3 days!  We are very happy to see him growing. The doctor said he looked wonderful and that his jaundice is clearing up nicely.  He still is a little yellow but it will go away.

Margaret our midwife also came to see Parker on Monday.  She is extremely thrilled with the progress he has made and is impressed with this little man.  He truly is our miracle baby. She also said that she thinks people at the hospital will be talking about Parker and his birth for a while.  Not only do they rarely see natural labor, but to see a breech birth be delivered without a c-section is quite the sight to see.

Henry and I have been so amazed to see God's hand in this entire situation.  He ordained ever detail of Parker's life. I am so excited to see what God does with Parker's life.

Today he is still doing great he was 6 pounds 14oz this morning. probably be 7 pounds tomorrow. Here are some pictures I took of him yesterday and today.  He sure is turning into the a chunky monkey.

look at those rolls!

HOME

Parker is finally home. Friday we brought our little guy home it was such a big day for him and dad... 

Splish Splash!

This afternoon Parker made two big strides.  He got off of the bililights and got a bath! The doctor said he is pleased with Parker's poops and thinks his levels will come down naturally.

I have been very excited to give Parker a bath. He has not had one since he was born and so he is sticky everywhere.  Between just normal baby goup, the sticky substance that keeps his tubes in and leads on, and the stuff they have had to put on him for his EEG and other tests he was pretty funny feeling.  When we gave him his bath we noticed that his hair is actually brown.  This whole time I was thinking he had black hair after all he is Asian.  He also got to wear cloths for the first time! It was so great to get to dress him.  Strange to have a baby finally bathed and dressed.

Today Parker did not eat all that well.  It seem like every feeding he was either interrupted, or so tired he just didn't eat much. The doctor wants him to be gaining weight before he goes home.  I told Parked he needed to eat well and boy did he!  After his bath he ate for 30 min!  He has never ate for that long.  He was very content after that.  

Today we started the go home check list.  He has several things he needs to do before he can go home. He will do a lot of them tomorrow so we are very excited for tomorrow.  It will be a big day.  He is close enough to going home that we get to bring his car seat in tomorrow.  No for sure day of when he is going home but hopefully in the next few days!

More improvements

Well Parker had quite the exciting morning.  When Henry and I got there to feed the little man this morning we had just started feeding him and a code was called for some other baby. They had to move the baby into Parker's room which made no room for us to feed.  So we went to a different room and finished our meal.  Because everyone was busy with the code I got to snuggle Parker for about an hour (including his feeding time.) At that point they decided he was healthy enough to move to the intermediate nursery!  This is one step closer to going home.  It is still a part of the NICU but it is only for babies who just need to gain weight and or finish up light therapy. It is much calmer down there and nice to be out of the offical ICU. Parker also got to move into a normal crib that most newborn babies are in during their stay at the hospital.  He took it all in stride.  His feeding this morning was not best but for all the interruptions he had he rocked it.

At noon Henry came to help feed Parker and about 2 minutes into the feeding we felt and heard quite the rumble from our duders and sure enough he filled his pants again.  I don't think we will ever be so excited over poopy diapers.  We met with a developmental therapist who watched him eat and did some exercises with Parker.  She was very happy with how well he was doing and will give us some exercises to do with Parker when we take him home.  There exercises will be to increase his muscle tone and help prevent any type of long term problems.

Parker gets his bilirubin level drawn again tomorrow morning and that will determine if he gets to stop his light therapy.  The nurses and doctors think it will be normal and that he will be able to stop the therapy tomorrow but we shall see what the number say.  His pooping habits are still not where they would like them but he is making improvements.

The nurses all think he is adorable and comment on how cute is he.  I agree with the nurses and doctors but I think I have a bias opinion. :)

He Poops!

Today Parker did an amazing job at Pooping! He waited all day for dad to get off work so he could fill his pants just in time for dad to change him.  We are so happy!  I spoke with the doctor who said his EEG was normal so the neurologist will probably not come to see him.  She said he is acting like a normal baby and his test show he is a normal baby so no need for a specialist at this point.  The doctor also said there are 3 things he needs to do before he can go home.

1. breath on his own (he has been doing that for a few days now)
2. Maintain his temp. ( he has been doing that well for a few days as well)
3. he must continue to poop so they can observe his poop for 2 full days.

So as long as he keep pooping we should be out of there friday-ish.  Doctor said by the end of the weekend.

Now that he is pooping his bilirubin levels should come down quickly.  The nurse said tomorrow will probably be his last day of light therapy.  Then we can hold him more and he gets to wear cloths! It always looks so strange to me to see this little newborn baby in only a diaper.  It will be nice to get to see him dressed.

As far as feeding he has been doing a great job. At his 3pm feeding he breastfeed for about 20 min and then drank 1oz! He is doing so great! After eating so much he couldn't even stay awake as I burped him.  It was very cute. I can not wait to be able to show him off to everyone.

He got his central line out today (the IV doing through his umbilical cord) and he had an NG tube put in.  The NG tube is a tube that goes in his nose, down his throat, and into his stomach.  The NG tube is just a precaution at this point it will only be used to give him any fluids or food if he stops eating as well as he is. A NG tube should not be put in when a baby is full because they usually vomit when it is put in if there is much in the stomach. Also a NG tube carries a lot lower chance of causing any type of infection to our little guy.  We wish he didn't have to have it but it is better then and IV so we will take it.

Good little eatter

Yesterday Parker got to start eating as much as he will eat on his own. This was very exciting for us.  This also meant that we got to start breastfeeding! It took him a couple of attempts to figure it out but by his 9pm feeding he had it pretty well figured out.  He is eating about 30 ml or 1oz every 3 hours.  As he starts eating more he can have his central line removed and if he is eating really well then he may not need an IV.  He finished his antibiotics yesterday but is still getting some artificial food via his central line until he really starts eating more.  He had a very small poop Sunday night but has not moved anything since.  This is one thing he needs to be doing regularly before he can go home.  I told Parker a Do-Do is on his To Do list. :) The doctors are still very pleased with is progress and it is basically just a waiting game now.  He had an EEG yesterday and we will not know the results until tomorrow.  Parker is still doing light therapy. He wears the white "sunglasses" to protect his eyes.  He doesn't seem to mind them, I would think it would be kind of nice to get to have a completely dark room to sleep in.

This morning he ate very well. He latched on with hardly any struggle. It was like he was a normal baby.    Because Parker is doing so well he is not a high priority to be seen by the doctors when they first get here so he has not see the doctor yet.  The neurologist are going to come see him hopefully today and it will be nice to see what they have to say.