9-13-10

I think Oliver had a bit of an issue with adjusting to Bay 4 yesterday and he was very irritable every time I would put him down. That was okay with me, I could hold him and catch up on all that time I missed holding him but I was starving at it was 8:30 at night. I finally got him asleep and I didn't think he'd wake up for the 9pm feeding so I went back to the camper last night to get things ready for me to start rooming in with him. I hope that with Oliver waking up/the nurse waking him every 3 hours and this hard couch I can get some rest here.

Today the doctor and nurse practioner decreased his oral morphine to 0.15mg every 4 hours and turned his oxygen down to 3/4 liter but they did have to turn the concentration up in the night to 25-30% due to some lower oxygen saturations below 90%. Today his sats have been in the high 90%'s on the 3/4 liter still at 30%.

The nurse practioner sat down with me and told me that we were talking days for discharge not weeks. She was hopeful that maybe by the weekend or early next week we could be going home. Once the morphine dose is at 0.1mg they would just be changing the frequency of how often it is given and that I could manage that at home. He will have to go home on some oxygen for a while so the only thing left for him is to eat. The nurse practioner said not to rush it and breastfeed him every time but to increase how often I do it by 1-2 times every day. So today I should feed him 4-5 times but let him rest a few as well and get the bolus as to not tire him out. He gained 90 grams since yesterday and now weighs 5 pounds 12 ounces so he is gaining weight. He is just small for his age because a 40 week baby, which is what he would have been if he was not early, should not weigh that little. So, they want to make certain before we leave that he can either breastfeed or bottle feed exclusively and that he can gain weight doing it and not lose it with the extra energy needed to suck.