I finally got Noah home yesterday. He started getting the whole eating thing over last weekend, and once babies get that, then they start moving them through the rest of the process as fast as the baby can handle it. Up till now, the goal was to get him eating 2 feeds a day from the me that's at least 75% of a required food amount. Noah was getting some from me, but because I don't have much milk he was sucking a lot to get just a little, so I only fed him for 10 minutes so he wouldn't waste any energy, then gave him the rest he needed from a bottle. Once we started doing that regularly and the night nurse gave him one feeding with a bottle instead of through the feeding tube, he took off and was a pro at the whole sucking/swallowing thing. (If anyone reading this ever has a baby in the NICU, give them a bottle. If you're against formula, pump and give them that in a bottle. It gets them out of the NICU so much faster, plus the nurses can help with the feedings).
Once he started eating regularly, they ask me to come in 4 times a day - what equals to every 6 hours - to feed him. The other feedings he's still getting from the feeding tube. This gives him a chance to prove he's really getting the whole eating thing while giving him time to rest in between. He still has to eat 75% of his feeding amount to pass.
He did that great, so the next step is to do back to back feedings (feed him every 3 hours). We did 3 of those, each 12 hours apart. I came in at 10 Monday night, fed him, the nurse gave him a bottle at 1, then we did that again 12 hours later and again 12 hours later. He did great again, so we moved onto the 12 hour goal.
That means I come in every 3 hours for 12 hours and feed him. We started at 7 am Wednesday and again, he did great. Sometimes they give the kid a 12 hour break after that and sometimes they move them straight onto the 24 hour goal, which is the same as the 12 hour, but just for 24 hours this time.
Noah moved straight on without a break, which would have meant I would need to spend the night. But because he takes a bottle, the nurse offered to give him his night bottles so I could go home and sleep. Yeah!! So I came back the next morning, and because he was doing so well instead of having him finish the 24 hour goal, they moved him onto Request. (They may have also done this because I told the nurse practicioner that I needed to get the 12 hour and 24 hour goals done Wednesday and Thursday because Bryan had the days off, and get out of there by Friday. I'm learning you can negotiate a lot with your health care as long as you're reasonable about it).
Request is when I feed him when he wants, as much as he wants. Up till now, before I fed him I would weigh him in grams, then feed him, then weigh him again. Because it's breast milk, you don't know how much he eats unless you weigh him. Then we'd top off whatever he needed with a bottle. So I knew exactly how much he was eating every time. But at home I'm not going to weigh him every time he eats (although Bryan would probably love to do this). So the last step is to weigh him in the morning, let him eat when he wants as much as he wants, then weigh him at night and see if he gained weight. If he does, he gets to go home. If he doesn't, we have to do it again. But this means I stick around the hospital and wait for him to wake up and eat. Luckily, Bryan had the day off so I could come and go as I needed to and the NICU does the work of putting the kids on an eating schedule. Noah adjusted well to the 3 hour schedule so I figured he'd stick to it even when he could eat when he wanted to and the nurse agreed. So instead of just hanging around the hospital on Thursday, I came and went every few hours and Noah was pretty good about the 3 hour schedule. I did, however, need to spend the night so I could feed him through the night. Again, luckily, the night nurse volunteered to give him his night feedings with a bottle and let me sleep. (I'm going to write another post about how much I loved the nurses. I loved them with all of my heart). I just had to physically be available in case there was a problem, so I had to be at the hospital, but at least I got to sleep. Noah gained the weight he needed and was discharged Friday morning.
Going through the whole process again with Noah was so, so much easier than it was with Jacob. We knew what to expect, we knew why they did what they did and we were much more patient. Jacob was only in there for 9 days and Noah was released on day 22. I know I couldn't have handled it if Jacob was in for 22 days, or even much longer than the 9 days, even though I didn't have other kids to take care of. But those 9 days gave us what we needed so we could handle the 22 days this time, with so much more on our plate. It's so nice to not have to go back and forth from the hospital and of course have Noah home, without wires and cords and there's no protocol and rules with everything we do with him. Me and Bryan are definitely tired - the last week has been so busy with me gone so much. It's very nice to be home for good, though. I told my mom last night it's going to be a long time before I voluntarily walk into a hospital again, mostly because I'm scared they'll tie me to a bed again and not let me go.
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