Lincolns First Week Home

Baby Lincoln has officially been home for a week and 3 days.  We took him to his weight check the Monday he got home and he had gained a few ounces and was up to 7lb 2oz in a matter of less than 2 days.  We took him again this Monday and he had gained 12.5 oz!!  Crazy how quickly they grow.  He had his circumcision on Monday which was a whole new experience for me.  I was nervous taking him in and nearly passed out changing his first diaper.  Thankfully my mom was there to take over while I pale faced sat down with my head down.  It just hurts my heart to see him hurting.

He had a pretty enjoyable week gaining weight though. :)  His sisters have loved him NONSTOP!  Ella snuggled him while watching a movie one night.  She does such a good job holding him and helping me when I am holding him.

I have pumped a lot and fed him bottles because he is so much quicker and more efficient with a bottle in my opinion. I am probably delusional about that, but whatever makes me feel better I guess. And besides the kids always enjoy a chance to feed their baby brother.

He has been a pretty amazing sleeper.   They advised me to wake him to eat every 4 hours if he hasn't woke by then to avoid his blood sugar dropping.  I am pretty sure he would already do more than a 4 hour stretch if I didn't have to wake him.  He's a good little sleeper and doesn't generally keep me up too long in the night and only about twice.  Pretty ideal for a newborn in my opinion.  Truly a tender mercy to help me care for the other kids I have.

We sure feel blessed to have this little guy.  Molly always comments that she loves him and he loves her and he's just so cute and I'm so glad we have baby Lincoln.  It makes my heart happy that all my girls have embraced him like I hoped they would.  Makes being the mama pretty pleasant.  I sure do love all these babies.  Feeling blessed every single day for such miracles in our lives.

Molly Says her First Prayer!

I have been trying for a long time to get Molly to say her prayers by herself.  I know she knows how but she is afraid to try.  This morning for whatever reason she said, "I need to learn to say my prayers by myself." So we folded our arms and she did it.  It was a proud moment for me.

As a side note - kinda funny story.  This week while she was saying family prayer before bed she started to talk silly during her prayer.  After she finished I told her we shouldn't talk like that while we're talking to Heavenly Father.  We need to talk reverently.  She replied with, "That's how I speak Spanish."  All we really could do is laugh.  Silly girl.

Baby Lincoln's First Photo Shoot

My mom and I spent a few minutes the other day trying to get some pictures of baby Lincoln.  Newborn pictures are so much harder than they seem like they would be.  I am happier with these than I have been with others I have tried to take of my other kids though.  He was such a good baby even though we just woke him up and he was hungry. :)  Such a beautiful little miracle.

These football ones are for daddy.  Especially with the Steelers blanket in the background.

Day 13 - Coming Home!

Friday I stayed the entire day and night at the hospital minus a couple hours when I went to lunch and while Dustin stayed with Lincoln I ran home and grabbed a pillow and some clothes.  It made for a pretty long day.

The night was long.  Aside from laying on a futon I was nursing Lincoln or having a nurse peep in on us about every hour so I figured I had about 3 hours of broken sleep that night.  I couldn't wait for 10am to see what the doctors would conclude about our situation.  

Finally our time came for rounds and they went over Lincolns stats and said, "We're sending you home."  I felt this huge urge to cry and leap at the same time and just thanked all of the doctors and nurses in the room for all they had done to help my little boy get better.  

I had already packed our bags to leave so I wheeled Lincoln back into the nursery while I took all our stuff out to the car and then I found myself ripping his monitors off his chest.  I was just so ready to hit the road and have our little guy come home.

We found this on the garage door when we walked in.

Of course daddy was first to give him squeezes.

Then all the sister hype started.  Everybody had scrubbed their hands and were ready to hold their baby brother.

Ella & Alissa holding Lincoln for the first time.

 

Our first picture of all 4 babies!  Feeling so blessed every time I look at this picture.  Just hard to believe they are all mine!  How did I get 4 kids? :)

I think this is the first time Molly figured out her brother was real.  She kept commenting that he has hands and eyes and ears and just wanted to pinch his little cheekies.  

As I was leaving the hospital the nurse said I better not forget my milk they had in storage for me.  After the spilled milk I guess I got a little carried away with making sure my milk supply was sufficient for my baby boy in the NICU.  I was pumping about double what he was eating and ended up bringing home 22 bottles of milk.  Ha!  I felt blessed to have this situation rather than the opposite.

Day 12 in the NICU

This morning we started the day with good morning from the big sisters.  Alissa was especially cute and getting more fond of him everyday I think.  Thank goodness for FaceTime to help them realize he is a real baby.

They concluded he gained .2 oz and ate 73% of his food by mouth yesterday enough to pull the tube!!  I immediately took a picture and wanted to cry and laugh at all the same time.  I could just kiss his little face right off!

Right after his feeding he did his car seat challenge to keep his oxygen at a good % for an hour and a half and he passed.  Yay again!

Today we get to feed him on demand so if he is hungry after 20 minutes we keep feeding him and he can sleep up to 4 hours in between feedings!!  Hooray!  I am spending the next 24 hours at the hospital to feed him and assuming he has enough wet/dirty diapers he goes home tomorrow morning!  Can't even wait!

Day 11 in the NICU

We had a terrific morning in the NICU! (well.. as terrific as terrific can get in the NICU :))  Lincoln nursed for about 7 minutes and then ate over 80% of his bottle through his mouth so they counted it as a 100% feeding through his mouth!!  YAY little buddy!  He also gained 1.5 oz!   His average feeding over yesterday came back at about 62% which was up about 10% from the day before so I was hoping today would be a 75-80% day so we could bring him home soon.  I was so happy about that 100% feeding.

Dustin took the day off to help me be available to do more feedings at the hospital and came with me for 3 of the 5.  We took this picture to send to his brother of him carrying milk into the hospital because I once told him that his sister in law made these delicious cookies with breast milk - like it was her secret ingredient and he just about freaked out.  This is when they had a baby and we had no kids.  We laugh about it now.  It was nice to have a laugh that morning.

It's funny as I sat there this morning trying to force feed this baby boy I couldn't help but think that one day he is going to be eating a whole box of cereal in one sitting and eating us out of house and home.  It made me smile.  I will always remember the day that I force fed him 2 oz of milk.  he he


The nurse said we will try to get his feedings up to 75-80% today, take his feeding tube out tomorrow morning and put him through the car seat/oxygen test (he has to keep his stats high for 1.5 hours in a car seat) and watch him for another 24 hours before sending him home.  They observed that he eats better for me.  My personal opinion is that I try to get him to eat a lot harder than they try.  Now that we are in "Motel 8" each nurse has 4 babies to take care of so they don't get special treatment anymore.  So I have been into the hospital every 3 hours today trying to get him to eat.  I will be there first thing tomorrow with my duffle bag ready to stay 24 hours and then bring this baby boy home!! 


We are getting pretty anxious today!  Or I guess I am.. it's getting so close and I cannot wait for the girls to meet their little brother.


I have been so blessed to have such good friends and family here during this time.  My ward brought dinner again last night and tonight and tomorrow night as we struggle through this last stretch.  They brought dinner 4 nights last week as well.  My mom has been filling in all the gaps making sure nothing is too difficult. :)  Sure do love her and all she does for us.  So many of my friends have been taking the kids for a couple hours while I run to the hospital and then again mom covers all the gaps which is a majority of the visits.  I just have been humbled by the generosity and goodness of people around us.  I hope and pray I can pay it forward and always serve others in need.

Mom and dad visited us that night and got to hold him.  This little dude is so lucky to have such good grandparents on both sides of the family.  All the family was rooting and praying for him to get better.

I'm pretty sure he knew that. 

Day 10 in the NICU

This little guy gets cuter every single day! He must be a morning person like his mom cause every morning he seems to make big improvement and seems to get a little more lazy as the day goes on.  They warned me that white baby boys are lazy and I am starting to believe it.

I have felt so anxious to her this little guy home the past 2 days.  They moved us to the continued care room and it was like going from the Hampton to Motel 8.  1 nurse for every 5 babies and stuffed in a corner with only a chair and the bed.  No real privacy unless you stretch the curtain around you.  But you hear all the conversations going on in the room.   It was a rough day yesterday trying to come to grips with that change.  Makes me want to pack my bags and move in with him.

Today Lincoln gained a half ounce and went from 38 to 46% of his feedings.  This morning he did 80% out if the bottle an I wanted to give him a celebration party!  So happy for improvements.  Now we have to hope he continues that throughout the day.

I breast fed him yesterday morning and got frustrated by the nurse who told me he had I stop because he had done his 15 minutes which they considered a full feed.  It was obvious he was still hungry but they are the boss of you in here.  Grr.. Spent a good time crying about that too. Ripped my heart out to leave him awake and rooting in his silly bed.  I finally decided to go with straight bottles  with breast milk until he gets home so I don't get frustrated with this situation every day and I can see that he actually gets full.  He showed me he will breast feed with a little practice so I feel better about the situation.  I think we will get him out faster this way too.

I love the time we get to have in the mornings when he is wide awake and giving smiles and other silly faces.  Just makes my heart happy!

I got thinking last night about what I should be learning from this situation.  It is a rotten feeling to be so helpless. 

 I quickly realized I need to have more compassion toward others in hard and harder situations.  The people that have reached out to us have lightened our burden so much!

There are many situations in life that we have no control over.  I have to turn it over to The Lord to carry me through with my faith in Him and His plan.

I have to trust those taking care of my baby and rather than criticize I have to find ways to thank and serve them to make my heart happy.

So grateful for modern technology for keeping my baby alive.  He is such a blessing to our family already.

It is vital that we have the spirit in our homes and in our hearts so The Lord can communicate peace and understanding. I have pushed this pretty hard at home this week and feel a difference in the way the kids are behaving and talking to each other.  Not perfectly, but better.

Praying and hoping for a good day!

NIGHT TIME FEEDING -  We got to give Lincoln a bath tonight at his 8:30 pm feeding.  He didn't like it so much as he did the first one.  I think dad has the magic touch.

Day 9 in the NICU

This morning when I went in to see little Lincoln they gave me the report that he did well all night.  No real spitting and was doing 50% of his feeding through the bottle all night.  Apparently when they were changing his diaper he peed all over his too small onesie and was now naked so I brought some clothes to put him in to help him stay warm.

I was able to nurse him and he did a full 9 minutes without unlatching and then another 7 so I was excited to see that progress!  I had pumped only an hour before I went in because every attempt we have made to nurse up to this point has lasted only 5 minute max so I am sure I didn't have sufficient milk for him this morning.  They consider 15 minutes of nursing a full feed for him, however I could tell he wasn't full so they gave him another 10 ml through the bottle.  I still don't think he was satisfied though.  It made it particularly hard to leave him.  They will only allow 30 minutes for feeding because they don't want him to burn more calories than he is getting.  It's frustrating for me, but my only choice is to trust them.

He lost a tiny bit of weight which is no good because he has to do his full feedings and gain weight now in order for him to come home.  Praying it's soon!!

They moved him into a Continued Care Room which just means he's one step closer to coming home.