Ohh, WhyNot, outstanding. Simply outstanding. I’m so pleased you and WhyDad have gotten to hold little WhyBaby. Just pleased as punch. And it’s no surprise she’s doing well - she couldn’t help but be wonderful.
Best wishes to you all.
Coming along late to offer good wishes and hopes and healing thoughts for the little one!
Yay! I’m so happy for you.
Keep the updates and pictures coming. First thing I do every morning after I grab my coffee is look in on the Whys.
soooo wonderful. i’m so glad y’all got to hold her. it sounds like it was fantastic for mum, dad, and wee whybaby.
i am finding a bit of humour in you filling up a chest freezer with milk.
Oh, WhyNot! I just saw this thread today, and in reading it, ran the gamut of smilie emotions: 
:eek: 
I’m so glad to hear WhyBaby is doing well! I’m hoping you, she, and WhyDad all get over the abruptness of her arrival soon.
I know you’re bummed out about the c-section, but I think you guys made the right decision. Btw- How’s WhyKid holding up under the pressure of being a big sibling?! Excited? My oldest was able to draw pictures for his little brother, and the nurses hung them all over the place in the nursery. Maybe WhyKid could whip up a family portrait to hang on the isolette!
I’ll be thinking of you all.
FaerieBeth
I’m following this too…is there word from WhyNot about the happy status of WhyBaby? So adorable! She looks like a perfect baby to me. Someone should make the poor kid a hat that fits!
Anyway…thinking of her and wishing you al the best.
WhyKid’s doing well, all things considered. He was so very scared when I was hospitalized. He knew that morning that I was going to see the doctor, and was told to take his housekey with him as I might not be home when he got home from school (he’s 12, for the record.) But about an hour and a half after he got home to an empty house, a good friend of the family had to pick him up and explain that mom was going to be in the hospital for a few days. He came to see me the next day, and saw Caileigh just a few days later.
His grandmother’s taken him for two very long weekends, which has helped a lot. The two of them are very close, and he spends lots of weekends with her, so it’s actually helped to keep his routine as normal as possible. She helped him pick out a Valentine card for Caileigh, and they got a formal picture taken, one of which he gave to Caileigh and we taped into her isolette.
Today I told him he doesn’t have to go to the hospital with us every day, but can let us know when he wants to come along. He decided to stay home today and work on some homework while WhyDad and I spent an hour at the hospital. He’s a pretty good judge of how much he can handle, so I’m leaving it up to him.
Caileigh’s still doing well. Her bili lights stayed off today - they’re doing another blood draw tomorrow to check on her bilirubin, her hematocrit, etc. They did an EKG today, and should have the report tomorrow. We couldn’t hold her today (they have to be 1 kg to Kangaroo everyday, per hospital policy), but hope to tomorrow.
She’s gained 70 grams, and is up to feeds every two hours now! She had her first spontaneous bowel movement today - still merconium, but at least she moved it out without the glycerin suppository.
Sounds like WhyBaby is well on her way to coming home with you!
Coming in late to the thread to wish you and whybaby the best of health. As a breastfeeding mother and community leader of breastfeeding chat on another board, I have a lot of info on breastfeeding.
Kellymom’s site is a great resource for all things breastfeeding. I would also suggest getting hold of a certified lactation consultant before whybaby comes home to get her directly onto the breast because I’m sure you know that as a preemie, your milk is most definitely the best thing you can give her and breastfeeding from the ‘tap’ is so much easier than pumping all the time. Can you talk to the nurses in the NICU about when they can start suck training and the possibility of putting her directly to breast when you start kangaroo care.
I would also second the recommendation to get breastmilk storage bags as they can store flat like leaves and give a lot more room in the freezer. Don’t freeze more than about 2oz portions for now because breastfed babies rarely take more than 4oz in a bottle even when they’re older (my 13 mo will still not take more than 4oz), and there is nothing more heartbreaking than having to throw out that precious stuff.
Good luck to you hon and keep us updated She’s absolutely beautiful btw!
We had to buy a little chest freezer, too, when Baby Dax was in the NICU. We had to use these special, pre-sterilized plastic bottles when she was in hospital, but the breatsmilk baggies are pretty handy now. I’ve found that the Lansonih brand leaks much more often than the Gerber brand, but YMMV.
Don’t babies look funny under those bili lights? Like something out of a sci-fi movie? Glad to hear she’s doing so much better, and I totally, totally know what you mean about getting to hold her for the first time. It’s something every mother remembers forever, but it’s so much more poignant when you’ve had to wait for what seems like forever.
Yep, like** Emony Dax**, we have to use the bottles provided by the hospital for the time being, but I’ll switch to the plastic bags when I can.
Well, her mouth is way too tiny right now, strength and energy issues aside. I’m a little concerned that I might end up pumping for a full year or more, simply because by the time she’s big enough to attempt nursing (my nipples require the extra-large Medela nipple cone-thingies for the pump), she’s likely to be so used to the lazy suck of a bottle that she won’t put up with the breast. But we’ll see. I’ll pump for the whole time if I have to.
The nurses said we can consider trying the breast at about 32 gestational weeks, which is about 7 weeks away. I can’t concieve of her growing enough in that time, but who knows?
That was the weirdest thing! Between the redness of the cappilaries seen through her transluscent skin, the yellow of the jaundice and the blue of the light, she looked like she was made out of milk chocolate! Which, seeing as my husband and myself are two of the palest ass white folks you ever bumped into, caused a bit of consternation in the first few moments until the nurse kindly turned the light off for a minute! 
Calleigh is so tiny and beautiful. Please know you and your family have my best wishes for a speedy return to normalcy.
That’s what happened to us- he was too small, to weak, too uncoordinated, perhaps too lazy (he was a difficult baby, but is a wonderful kid), etc. It was a humongous hassle to pump for a year, but ir was a personal committment I made to myself and I did it. Of course, I’m really glad I did, too, but it was a job at times.
Mom’s who exclusively pump are my personal heroes. I was committed to breastfeeding but I doubt I would have had the fortitude to EP because you get the worst of both worlds of bottle feeding and breastfeeding. Congratulations to you ca3799 and whynot, kudos to you for wanting to do that for whybaby. If you do find yourself EP’ing, there is a wonderful EPing board on Ivillage where you can get a lot of tips on how to keep your supply up, best freezing/defrosting methods etc. The mom’s there are incredibly knowledgeable and if you have any spare time, you might want to mosey over there and tell them your story and get some extra moral support :).
Here’s sending some more gain weight vibes to whybaby and I think you’ll be surprised at how different she will be in 7 weeks time.
Thanks, biddee, I’ll check out that link today. I went to the “Breatfeeding/Pumping for Premies” class at the hospital yesterday, and it turns out I’m not producing enough milk. I sort of thought so, but I also know that’s the number one fear of nursing moms, so I told myself not to get too wrapped up in it. Well, by the actual numbers, I’m not producing enough. So now I have to keep a log of each session. I’ve also been told to increase the time between the pumps to 4 hours (from 2) and not to pump overnight. The lactation nurse thinks the stress hormones in me from constant pumping, not sleeping enough and worrying about the baby are interfering with the prolactin and limiting the milk supply. So, somewhat counterintuitively, I have to pump LESS in an effort to increase the quantity of milk.
We’ll see if it works. But it sure was nice to get 7 hours of sleep all in a row last night!
I did also find out that it’s standard for premies to start nursing with mom wearing a nipple shield, which helps reduce the consternation around different nipple feel, teaches the baby that milk comes from the breast, and also reduces the size of the nipple in the baby’s mouth. So the large nipple thing won’t be as much of an issue as I thought.
Caileigh’s taking her feeds well now. She’s on 3 mL of milk every two hours. Overall, doing very well. She’s sucking a lot of air around her vent, though, which makes her oxygen saturation level (the amount of oxygen actually getting into her system) go wonky. The vent is just a smidgeon too small, so there’s a leak. Until she’s big enough for the next size vent, the poor nurses are nearly constantly adjusting her O2 levels to keep her saturation level where it should be.
Wednesday was two weeks. It’s weird. In some ways it seems like this has been going on forever. In others, I can’t believe two weeks has flown by already.
Hon, I’m really glad that Caileigh is doing well…I’m so happy for you :).
With all due respect to your lactation nurse, I would seriously get a second opinion about your pumping schedule from a board certified lactation consultant. Everything that I know about milk production says that the more milk you remove from the breast the more milk you will make. I really think that you will shoot yourself in the foot by pumping on this 4 hour schedule and I would really really hate for that to happen. Studies have shown that stress does not inhibit milk supply, but it does inhibit let down, so I’m wondering whether you’re getting effective letdowns. MEJ (milk-ejection reflex) is a conditioned response (kinda like Pavlov’s dog’s salivating when they hear a bell ring) and there are a number of tips to helping letdown when pumping. Check out this link for more information.
It is very important in these early weeks to build up a proper supply ESPECIALLY if you are planning to EP long term (but you knew that already!).
Email me through my profile if you want more information. I can put you in touch with a really great Lactation consultant online and/or help you find one IRL.
((((HUGS))))) hon and stay strong for that gorgeous little girl! You’re doing an awesome job as a mommy and I’m praying she keeps getting stronger and stronger and is home much sooner than you think!
Here’s some more information on building and maintaining supply while baby can’t nurse.
There is also a breastfeeding chat today at 1pm ET if you would like to join us (if you have time, of course).
Chat link . We have a group of very nice, very supportive mommies who have a lot of advice on breastfeeding and caring for kids :).
Prayer for Caillegh sent! I just read this thread as I was watching the late Doc Gene Scott on RealPlayer & I took Communion with him on behalf of her.
Glad to hear little Calleigh is still doing well. I was wondering about her and I hope you have time to keep us updated on her, but I understand you’re a little busy these days! FWIW, when Baby Dax was in NICU, the lactation nurses also recommended a solid stretch of about 6 hours of sleep overnight (12-6, I think?), then pumping every 2-3 hours during the day. Seriously, the stress involved in having a baby in NICU is so unbelievable, that you MUST have a good rest every night or you could easily suffer a total physical and emotional meltdown, not to mention the stress hormones affecting your supply and contributing to “pumping burnout”. I found that fenugreek helped with my supply, but domperidone was much better; unfortunately, it’s on the FDA list of banned imported drugs now (much to the outrage of breastfeeding advocates and lactation consultants), though the good ladies at breastfeeding.com could point you to a source if you were interested. Reglan is a similar drug (but with more side effects) that your OB could prescribe and your local pharmacy can fill it for you.
I hope you’re able to spend some time away from the hospital every day–that was my biggest challenge, learning to leave her for an hour here and there just for my sanity’s sake, without feeling guilty. I was actually grateful for the non-visitor rule during shift change, because then I had an excuse to get away from the madness of the hospital.
Keep your chin up, and remember this will all be over soon. We’re all keeping you and Calleigh in our thoughts.