Positive Doper vibes headed BabyVor’s way. Best wishes to you and your wife as well.
Ava
Thanks everyone, I’ll be sure to print out this thread so that the LadyVor can read it at the hospital tonight.
It is indeed, a couple of pneumothoraxes, and not whatever I originally said. They’re resolving on their own (the body’s reabsorbing the air without the need for needles or chest tubes), and he’s starting to breath deeper (50-60 times/sec, rather than the 80-100 he was doing yesterday) and maintaining his blood oxygen level on 50% oxygen, rather than the 100% he was getting yesterday. When he gets down to normal breathing of normal air (20%), we can pick him up and attempt breastfeeding. (Well, she can attempt breastfeeding. I doubt I’d be very successful at it.)
All of the other complications they feared, pneumonia, infection, etc, have been ruled out.
They’ve been feeding him sugar thorugh the IV, and added lipids this afternoon. They do have a tube running from his nose to his stomach, currently to releave gas but they may try and put some formula (combined with what she’s managed to pump out) into his tummy. I don’t think that latch will be a problem, as he’s been sucking on his tongue for approaximately 60% of his life, but we have good lactacion support lined up.
Thank you all for your good wishes. Seeing all the premature babies struggling in the NICU helps put things into perspective, but nothing helps more than hearing tales from people who’ve been through this and lived to tell about it 
-lv
Sending prayers and postive healing thoughts and vibes your way, BabyVor!!! And a few coming toward his parents as well!
Whatsit Jr. had RSV which led to bacterial pneumonia at the age of one month, and wound up with a pneumothorax. He had a chest tube and was on a ventilator for a couple of weeks. It was probably the worst two weeks of my life, but it was at least good knowing that he was being well taken care of by our medical team.
I second what everyone else said about feeling very, very strange on discharge day. You’ve had your baby hooked up to blood pressure/breath rate/etc monitors for so long, and now they’re just like “Good luck! Have a safe trip home!” I kept thinking, “Isn’t there something more they should be doing?” but in fact, it all turned out just fine.
Five years from now this is all just going to be a cool story for your kid to share with his kindergarten classmates.
(Oh, and by the way – even though Whatsit Jr. had scarring from his pneumonia, and had two holes punched through his chest to insert the chest tube on two separate occasions, he’s never had a single episode of asthma or wheezing, he’s never displayed shortness of breath, and all his doctors assure us that he can play sports and be as active as any other kid. In case you were worried about that.)
My second child inhaled meconium at birth, too, and had to be suctioned repeatedly. Although she didn’t get to the level of distress BabyVor did, we were very worried about her for a time, and even today I have to stop to remember that she isn’t the one with the delicate lungs - that’s her older sister. There were no lasting effects on her at all.
Now, now, you’ll never accomplish anything with that kind of defeatist attitude! Why, with a breast pump, enough determination, and a few hormone shots, I’m sure you could manage something. 
Another quick update tonight, then probably a while before the next one. He’s off of oxygen completely now, but his bloodOx still drops a bit (and his breathing rate increases quite a bit) when he’s awake. So they’re keeping him sleepy tonight, then tomorrow we’re probably going to get to hold him, to see if we can keep him calm and awake at the same time. They’ve actually been keeping him sleepy the whole time, I don’t know what color his eyes are yet.
If all keeps going this well, he’s going home in two days. I think they wanna make sure we can feed him without any help.
The LadyVor read all of your comments tonight, and wishes to thank you all very much. It’s really true what they say, shared problems are divided, shared joys are multiplied. I can’t begin to say how much the good wishes of near total strangers means at a time like this.
-lv
Bumping, to see if little BabyVor gets to come home today.
LordVor, how are things going?
Things are going better, but he hit a bit of a snag along the way so he’s not home yet. The first time they tried to ramp up his feedings (to get off of the IV fluids), he was eating it fast enough but not digesting it fast enough, and it got to the point where, at his second 20CC feeding, he still had 26CCs of milk left in his stomach. So they skipped that feeding, and gave him a suppository, and let him spend more time on his stomach (DISCLAIMER: They let him sleep on his stomach because they had heartrate and breathing rate monitors on him, so they could turn him over if he started having trouble breathing. Parents should not let their newborns sleep on their stomach unattended.), he had a couple of big smelly diapers, and that got things going again.
So today we were trying to ramp it up again, but the little guy got impatient. He ripped out his IV about 16 hours before he was scheduled to get off of it, and they spent about a half hour trying (unsuccessfully) trying to get another one started before saying “ta heck with it. Let’s just see if he’ll eat more.” So the IV is out, and we’re ramping up his food intake more quickly, and so far he’s handling it like a pro.
Pretty much all day today he completely finished his bottles by mouth, and when I left him and mom he was still hungry after his 35CC feeding so she put him to breast, and he was 1) hungry enough to be willing to work at latching on and suckling but 2) full enough that he didn’t get frustrated right away, so that just worked wonderfully. The LadyVor’s milk has come in with a vengance, she’s pumping between 90 and 120 CCs every three hours. With a 4 day old baby. She’ll be going home with a bit of a stockpile, methinks.
Today, for the first time in my life, I:
- Took a baby’s tempurature.
- Changed a baby’s diaper
- Prepared a baby’s bottle (the nurse usually does it, but she had her hands full and he was screaming for his bottle, 15 minutes before his “scheduled” feeding, so I took the initiative).
- Fed a baby
- Burped a baby
- Held a baby while he fell asleep in my arms.
Today was a good day.
-lv
Oh, yay! I’m so glad to hear things are going well!
A few things that your post made me remember from my experience with Whatsit Jr:
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I pumped so much milk during his three-week hospital stay that we had enough breastmilk stored up for babysitter visits and the like to last us until he was 9 months old. In fact, we had so much oversupply that I had to use my mother-in-law’s freezer, because ours didn’t have enough space. Which led to an amusing incident when my brother-in-law grabbed a breastmilk container out of the freezer, and just before digging in with a spoon, asked innocently, “Hey, is this fro-yo?”
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I remember being surprised the first time I came into the NICU and saw Whatsit Jr. sleeping on his tummy, too. The nurse shrugged and said that with three different monitors attached to him, they’d know instantly if he stopped breathing, and besides, he seemed to sleep better on his tummy. (He still does.)
Glad to hear everything is going so great!
I’m so glad to hear it, LordVor!
Yay! I always like to hear happy baby news
Soon those baby firsts will be old hat to ya!
Good luck and I hope he’s home soon.
I never thought that an icky diaper would bring tears to my eyes! Blessings on you all! Isn’t it wonderful to hold your own child?
Sounds like BabyVor is doing just fine.
I second finding a La Leche League in your area. They helped me when I had to stop breastfeeding due to appendicitis. (I couldn’t have the antibiotics going to the baby.)
Still thinking of you, MrsVor, and BabyVor- sending good thoughts your way!
It’s official. He gets to go home tomorrow, barring unforseen complications tonight. He’s eating well, he’s off his “eating schedule” and we can feed him on demand, so the nurses just call up to the room whenever he wakes up. She made a real attempt at breast feeding this afternoon, and it didn’t go the greatest but he latched on and sucked for a while. (I left the room, because I found myself starting to say “Just give him a bottle” three times.) And she slept through the 5am feeding this morning, so when she finally woke up and pumped (an hour later than usual) she filled up 4 whole 60CC bottles. This is from a lady who was a light B-cup prior to pregnancy. I think she’s making enough for the whole NICU right now.
So I snuck home tonight to do laundry, dishes, vacuuming and general cleaning so all she has to worry about tomorrow is the baby. Now the “fun part” starts.
-lv
That is great news! I am so glad to hear a happy ending.
i’m glad to hear baby vor is feeling better.
wow, you got to hold him when he went to sleep. isn’t that the most amazing thing?
Congratulations, LordVor (and LadyVor, of course!). So glad that the new addition is doing better. Best of luck to you!
Congratulations to the FamilyVor! Whenever I think about it, I’m always amzed at how resilient babies are!!
I am so glad to hear that the baby is doing well. It’s so nice to hear what you did with the cleaning.It sounds as if both of you will be great parents.