Another Tube Out.... Sort of

So they took Jaden's OG tube out of his mouth, and put it down his nose instead. This is in preparation for him to start breastfeeding. I think he prefers to have it out of his mouth, and now he can't force it out of his mouth with his tongue and get milk all over his bed. You think I'm exaggerating, but he's done that three times in the last two days alone! Also, you know by now that the night nurses love dressing him up, so last night they decided to gel his hair!

I'm not so much a fan of his hair, but at least his night nurses love him!

Here is one of our favorite nurses weighing him:

That shows that he is now 3 pounds 6 ounces!! But he's not gaining weight like they want him to, so they are now fortifying my milk with 26 extra calories each time he eats.

Jaden has started to do non-nutritive feedings, which basically means he breastfeeds without getting any milk. I make sure to pump before hand so he can just practice latching on, sucking, and generally just being comfortable. I love it! We do it once a day and it is just so fun to watch him try to figure this whole feeding thing out. When you are born that young, breastfeeding isn't second nature - they have to learn it. So we are working on that right now. Maybe in about a week we can start working on actually letting him get some milk. He's adorable!

Happy 2 Month B-Day!!

And what did we do to celebrate? A photo shoot of course!

I had so much fun dressing him up! At first we had his little hat on

but it really just didn't fit or look good. Plus, he's indoors, so he's really not supposed to wear the hat... so i took picture after picture after picture.

(that picture shows his herniated belly button - so no, that's not his wee-wee, but it is actually his belly button) After awhile he asked me to stop

but I didn't, so he started to get mad

but it had the reverse effect on me because I just thought it was cute so I kept taking pictures, which made him even more mad so I handed the camera off and picked him up (he LOVES being held) Then I finally decided he had had enough, so we took off his cute sailor outfit and put him in normal baby clothes He slightly opened his eyes, gave me a look that said "Thank you for getting me out of those crazy clothes" and then promptly fell into an angelic slumber. There's his crazy hair from the front, and here it is from the back:I have a feeling his hair will NEVER lay flat. That's ok. I'll keep him! :)

As far as updates, there really aren't any. Everything is still pretty much the same. He's still doing absolutely awesome!

Those Fun Night Nurses!

I love Jaden's night nurses. They have way too much fun at night trying to pass the time! Here are the pictures they took of Jaden at 3am this morning: (doesn't he look like he's saluting you with his other hand over his heart?)

I guess they decided that since Dad's in the military, Jaden needed to show his support. And where did they get the outfit you ask? From Build A Bear. Yup - it's meant to go on a teddy bear! I got excited when I found that out because I know they have a sailor's outfit at Build A Bear so I'm totally going to go and dress Jaden up as a tiny sailor!

Then he got so tired of modeling he slept the rest of the night!

Not too many new updates. He's down to 2.5 Liters per minute of air, and they have started to contract his feedings, meaning that he is no longer getting milk continually pumping into his stomach. Now, every 2 1/2 hours they stop his feedings for 30 minutes. They will gradually increase the length of time between feedings until they get him on a schedule where he gets fed once every three hours. He is just doing so well!

Eight Weeks Old! Can You Believe It!?!

We'll cover the good and bad news first, then pictures later.

The Good News:

*Jaden is doing so well on the high flow! He is down to 3 liters per minute and they might try weaning him down more tomorrow or the next day! I am so excited about this!
*He had his third eye exam, and the doctor said that he is doing so well and his eyes looked so clear that he doesn't need to have any more follow up eye exams for the time being!
*They stopped his daily caffeine jolt. He was getting caffeine into his stomach twice a day. It is a respiratory stimulant to help his brain remember to breath, but it's been such a long time since his last apnea, that they just took him off of it.
*He is able to self soothe enough now that they are no longer giving him any medication (like Versed or Ativan) to help him.
*They took out one of his tubes going into his stomach so that he now only has one tube and he is doing really well on his feedings! And the OJ tube going into his intestines is gone, so now he gets my milk right into his belly.

The Bad News:

*I bet some of you were so worried about the bad news that you skimmed right over the good news. Well, there isn't a single shred of bad news, so you can go back and read through all of the good news for him! :)

I love this kid so much it's incredible! I think he is darling and hilarious and stubborn and perfect!


And to document my mad burrito wrapping skills:I think I should put that skill on my resume. I could seriously get a job at Taco Bell or something.

The CPAP is Gone!

It was a success!! So far (and he could have a relapse and have to go back on CPAP), he has handled his high-flow nasal cannula great! He is usually between 21%-25% oxygen and he is getting 4 liters of air per minute. As he does well, we will wean that down, and once he is down at around 1.5-1 liters per minute, he will be able to start to try to breast feed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a really cute picture of him, especially since he had just had tape pulled off of his face and made him really mad by bugging him so bad, but I sure tried!

Notice how his clothes are really close to fitting him now!He had his first hair washing with actual soap today, and he really liked it! It is so funny to see how he is photographed verses how he looks in real life. In real life, he has a TON more hair and it is a lot darker than in the pictures!

Goodbye CPAP!!! I hope we never see you again!!

Wow! Look at the difference in his hair from when he was on CPAP to when he is off of it! Maybe it was a combination of the hood and a good hair washing that suddenly makes him look blonder... Interesting....

Another Milestone!

Our little boy is now 3 pounds 3 ounces!!! So huge! And I can definitely tell a difference. Here he is at 1 pound 5 ounces:

And here he is at 3 pounds 3 ounces:

Here is his hand size at 13 days old:

And here is his hand size at 54 days old (today):

Here he is with his elephant at 3 days old (it's hard to see the elephant because it's in the plastic bag):

And here he is with his elephant today:

He is doing much better on the CPAP and, cross your fingers, he may be taken off of it tomorrow and put on a high flow nasal canula. We can only hope! It will still have the nasal prongs but they will be smaller and the whole hood/elephant trunk/cumbersome set up that is the CPAP will be gone. Here are the nasal prongs for his CPAP:

Even though he is a whopping 3 pounds, he still has the tiniest nostrils!

And here are some pictures of him that I just like:

I went and spent 3 whole days with Jake this past weekend, and we had so much fun we didn't even take a single picture, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I miss him SO much, but I guess this is how it's supposed to be right now, so we'll deal with it. At least I have this little guy to keep me company!

A Much Better Day

I don't know what the difference is, but Jaden was so much happier and more mellow today. Thank heavens! It has been hard because the things that we used to soothe him when he was on the ventilator don't seem to work as well now that he is on the CPAP, so we have had to find out new ways to calm him down. Here is what we have found works:

• A warm blanket wrapped around his head
• a squirt of warm milk into his mouth and then pop in the pacifier
• a squirt of sugar water into his mouth and then pop in the pacifier
• light pats on his body
• lightly scratching/rubbing his head

Note - the pacifier tricks will only work if he isn't screaming his head off because then he won't take the pacifier, but if you can get him to calm down a little bit, then squirt the milk in and put in the pacifier, it works like a charm and you'll have him sleeping in no time.

I have found it is impossible to take a cute picture of a CPAP baby. But you can be sure that I tried really hard! And here are my best efforts:

My little boy is so reverent!

Look how much hair he has and look how LONG it is!!!!

He foams at the mouth a lot, especially on the CPAP.

I love pictures where it looks like a giant is attacking him!

We love our little angel!!!