Hello again!
When I last posted, I had mentioned that I was returning to work on Thursday. Well, it wasn’t easy. After spending 7 weeks being able to only see him for a few hours a day, to then having 24 hour access, to then going back to work and not being able to see him… It’s just another adjustment. I’m glad though, that I was able to take as much time off as I was both through the entire NICU ordeal and for the week after he finally came home. Now, I’ve just got to get caught up at work.
As for Dylan, he just keeps on growing. We measured his length for the first time since he came home, and he is 20” long. His last measurement in the NICU was 19”. He was 16 ½ when he was born. I don’t have an accurate weight, but he is plumping up nicely. He now has a cute double chin, rolls on his legs and he is developing rolls on his arms too.
He is also awake much more often these last few days. Previously, he would eat and then go right to sleep for about 3 or 4 hours, wake up and then eat and go right back to sleep. There were brief periods of wakefulness in between eating and sleeping, but they generally wouldn’t last much longer than 30 minutes or so. That is all changing, and it’s a joy to see. Now, Dylan will typically wake up either due to a dirty diaper or to a hungry tummy. We’ll address whatever the issue was (or both) and then have about and hour or more to spend some time with him. If he’s awake but relaxed, in what is called the “quiet alert” stage, I love to take that time to read to him. He’ll curl up on my chest and hang on my every word. If he’s more active then we’ll play little games with him or spend some time doing his exercises to improve his muscle tone. They are definitely working, too. He can support the weight of his head when held upright, for a brief period of time and if he is on his belly he can lift his head and turn it from side to side whenever he wants.
Dylan is also eating like a full term baby. We had originally brought him home using the same nipples that he was used to from the NICU. Not long after we got him home though, we noticed he was collapsing the nipples. His suck was becoming stronger than the nipple could tolerate. So, we tried poking extra holes in them. We had ordered a case of 240 of these things, and we were hoping to actually get some use out of them. The holes helped, but it really became too much of hassle to have to do that each time. They are disposable nipples and not designed for multiple uses, so we would have to poke the extra holes every time. We still had the bottles and nipples that gave him trouble in the NICU, but they are very different from what he had grown used to that we thought it best to try something else. The NICU nipples are smaller and made of rubber. The AVent nipples that we tried are significantly larger and are made of silicone. Apparently, the silicone is more difficult to latch on to. Combine that with the larger size, and it’s no wonder Dylan had a difficult time with them. What we decided to do was to find silicone nipples that were as close as possible to the rubber ones he had been using. After trying a few different brands, we found something that is an exact match in size and shape but made of silicone. Evenflo Comfi’ nipples are a perfect match for the other ones, just silicone. He took to these new nipples very well and has already graduated from a slow flow nipple to a medium flow nipple. One great side affect of Dylan being more comfortable with his eating is that he is taking in far less air, and is far less gassy. He was really having some difficulty with gas for the first few days when he began collapsing the other nipple. Now, that problem seems to have been mostly corrected.
When I last posted, I had mentioned that I was returning to work on Thursday. Well, it wasn’t easy. After spending 7 weeks being able to only see him for a few hours a day, to then having 24 hour access, to then going back to work and not being able to see him… It’s just another adjustment. I’m glad though, that I was able to take as much time off as I was both through the entire NICU ordeal and for the week after he finally came home. Now, I’ve just got to get caught up at work.
As for Dylan, he just keeps on growing. We measured his length for the first time since he came home, and he is 20” long. His last measurement in the NICU was 19”. He was 16 ½ when he was born. I don’t have an accurate weight, but he is plumping up nicely. He now has a cute double chin, rolls on his legs and he is developing rolls on his arms too.
He is also awake much more often these last few days. Previously, he would eat and then go right to sleep for about 3 or 4 hours, wake up and then eat and go right back to sleep. There were brief periods of wakefulness in between eating and sleeping, but they generally wouldn’t last much longer than 30 minutes or so. That is all changing, and it’s a joy to see. Now, Dylan will typically wake up either due to a dirty diaper or to a hungry tummy. We’ll address whatever the issue was (or both) and then have about and hour or more to spend some time with him. If he’s awake but relaxed, in what is called the “quiet alert” stage, I love to take that time to read to him. He’ll curl up on my chest and hang on my every word. If he’s more active then we’ll play little games with him or spend some time doing his exercises to improve his muscle tone. They are definitely working, too. He can support the weight of his head when held upright, for a brief period of time and if he is on his belly he can lift his head and turn it from side to side whenever he wants.
Dylan is also eating like a full term baby. We had originally brought him home using the same nipples that he was used to from the NICU. Not long after we got him home though, we noticed he was collapsing the nipples. His suck was becoming stronger than the nipple could tolerate. So, we tried poking extra holes in them. We had ordered a case of 240 of these things, and we were hoping to actually get some use out of them. The holes helped, but it really became too much of hassle to have to do that each time. They are disposable nipples and not designed for multiple uses, so we would have to poke the extra holes every time. We still had the bottles and nipples that gave him trouble in the NICU, but they are very different from what he had grown used to that we thought it best to try something else. The NICU nipples are smaller and made of rubber. The AVent nipples that we tried are significantly larger and are made of silicone. Apparently, the silicone is more difficult to latch on to. Combine that with the larger size, and it’s no wonder Dylan had a difficult time with them. What we decided to do was to find silicone nipples that were as close as possible to the rubber ones he had been using. After trying a few different brands, we found something that is an exact match in size and shape but made of silicone. Evenflo Comfi’ nipples are a perfect match for the other ones, just silicone. He took to these new nipples very well and has already graduated from a slow flow nipple to a medium flow nipple. One great side affect of Dylan being more comfortable with his eating is that he is taking in far less air, and is far less gassy. He was really having some difficulty with gas for the first few days when he began collapsing the other nipple. Now, that problem seems to have been mostly corrected.
On another subject entirely, it has been brought to my attention that we haven’t added any new pictures of Dylan since his homecoming. I guess since I get to see him so much, I didn’t really feel the need to be taking quite so many pictures. I promise to get some new ones posted soon. For now, please enjoy this one quick snapshot that we fired off yesterday.
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