March 11, 2014

I started doing laundry this morning and emptied the hamper onto the floor.  Our golden retriever Tristan dug through the laundry and found Ryan’s outfit and pulled it out and took it to his bed and curled up with it and started licking it.  I took it away from him and put it in the pile of laundry and surrounded it with the other clothes so he wouldn't notice it.  I went to the bathroom and came back and he’d found it again and was curled up with it and was snuggling with it and licking it.  He’s definitely interested in Ryan’s smell.  He was being cuddly and gentle with it, so I think that’s a good sign!  I didn't want him to ruin the cute outfit, so I brought a hand me down receiving blanket to the hospital today and we’re going to swaddle him with it and bring it home for Tristan and Raney to sniff.  That way, they can curl up with it all they want and it doesn't matter if it gets ruined.

I held Ryan skin to skin today.  It’s called kangaroo care and it’s been shown to be very beneficial to premature babies. The baby wears just their diaper and is held against their mom or dad’s chest so they can feel their parent’s warmth and feel their heartbeat.  It helps keep them warm, helps regulate their heart rate and breathing and has been shown to reduce the amount of time they stay in the NICU.  It also helps with bonding on both sides.  Ryan loves kangaroo care.  Even if he’s crying, he stops as soon as he realizes he’s with Mom and he sleeps peacefully.   Before he was stable, his heart rate and oxygen saturate rates would immediately stabilize.  I held him today and he was sound asleep.  When I started to put him back in his crib, he woke up, reached for me, tried to wrap his arms around me again and started crying.  I felt so bad putting him back in his crib.  I wish I could take him home with me.   It gets harder and harder to leave without him every day.

He has anemia, so they’re giving him medicine that stimulates his bone marrow’s production of red blood cells.  It takes 10-14 days to start working and he’s been on it about a week.  I’m praying that it works so he doesn’t need a blood transfusion.

His other new hobby is pulling out his nasal cannula.  Almost every time I look at him, it's out of his nose.  He somehow manages to pull it out even when he's wrapped up like a burrito and can't get his arms out.  He's on monitors and is breathing fine even when it's not in place. so it doesn't seem like he really needs it.

Having the nasal cannula over his eyes doesn't really help much.