Rough Beginnings

Thought I'd include a picture from this past December--our family enjoyed having a special dedication for our baby just before Christmas. My hubby feels strongly that infants shouldn't be baptized, so we are letting him choose baptism when he is older. So, we had a dedication and then a reception at our house afterward. It was really lovely!

Well, thus far this morning I'm sipping my coffee that I'm really impressed my hubby remembered to make, and blogging here with almost nothing to say of any inspiration, and sending my older son off to school, and listening to Andrew awakening in his room.
I'll tell you, it was hard to have Andrew move to his own room. For those of you who don't already know, Andrew was forced to come a month early, which for some babies wouldn't be that big of an issue. Some of them come on their own a month early, after all, and without incident. Andrew, however, was not ready to be born. He had what is called neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, which caused him to be in the NICU for 2 weeks. I had the experience of not holding my baby right after he was born, for about 15 minutes or more, and then only holding him for a little bit before they whisked him away to be helped. He had this scary little noise he was making, and wouldn't latch on, wouldn't open his eyes, was fairly lethargic, but was so precious and beautiful. His apgar was 7 at 1 minute and 8 at 5 minutes.

UT Medical Center was so good to us. The NICU there is top-of-the-line, and in a situation for parents that is very stressful, they were comforting and calm and encouraging and kind. Thankfully, Andrew only had to be there 2 weeks--some are there for far longer, with far more serious conditions. We were blessed to bring home a very healthy, only slightly smallish, little guy after 2 weeks in the the hospital. He was up to 7 lbs and a few oz at the time we brought him home, so he was growing nicely, too!

Breastfeeding had a rough start, probably because of the hospital stay and stress in the beginning. My milk did not want to come in, and only trickled in for the first two weeks with pumping every 2-3 hours, and every 4 at night. Andrew had an ng tube and was fed mostly preemie formula through that due to my low milk supply, but he got everything I pumped. We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Knoxville during our time, and I am so thankful for the comfortable atmosphere of the house and our room--especially as I sat on the loveseat in our room at 2 and 4 am, pumping, bleary-eyed and out of it. Pumping 3-4 times at night, away from the hospital, I maybe got 2 ounces. Hard to feel encouraged with that!




Daily I tried to breastfeed the little dude, and we had little tiny victories...but I was getting injured over and over again from improper latching. All those tubes and junk in his face and head, I think, made it more challenging. I was NOT giving up, however. I wanted to provide something for him. It became such a mission for me, I tried everything. We tried the supplementation drip system while I nursed, and that was not a lot of fun...but try, try again! The lactation consultants at UT are amazing, and I am really thankful for all of their help. So despite set-backs, we persevered, and after about 2 months of pretty horrible nursing pain at the beginning, we now have a fantastic nursing relationship, still going strong at 8.5 months!

Andrew slept in our room, right next to me in a bassinet, until he started rolling over. Like his older brother, he did much better sleeping in his little carseat, and therefore most of the time, I set the carseat safely in his bassinet to sleep, lol. It made for a little more peace! After a month or so, I moved him back to just sleeping without the seat and just in the bassinet. He did great!

Once he started rolling and waking himself up from being confined to a smaller space, I knew he needed more space...but his bed just wouldn't fit in our room. Because at that point, Andrew no longer was waking up in the night to eat, I felt it was okay to move him to his own room where he had a crib. If he were a night feeder, I would have reconsidered. Now he's a pretty great sleeper, has put himself on his own schedule, and is so happy and healthy! The only scare we've had since coming home was a bout with RSV....VERY nasty stuff. We were nearly at Children's Hospital with that one. But he came through with bronchiodilators, Tylenol, and humidifier. Thank God! Now he's a happy guy, eating all sorts of table foods, breastfeeding 4-5x a day, and now sipping water from a sippy cup! And this morning, I swear to you, he said "kitty" at our cat, Sarah. I mean it--it really, really, REALLY, sounded like he did. Who knows?