The Hull's: Sponge Bath

Andrew is one week old today! He will be 33 weeks gestational age on Monday. It’s hard to believe that a week ago, our tiny baby decided to make his entrance into the world. He has made a lot of progress and the nurses have nothing but positive and encouraging things to say about Andrew. Another increase in feedings today, he is eating a little over 1 oz. It seems to be a lot of food for him sometimes, but his tummy is so small, he thinks he is full before he finishes. I hitched another ride to the hospital today but hopefully I will be able to drive soon! When I got to the hospital they said that his bilie level dropped a point, so they won’t check that again until Sunday. He is really avoiding developing jaundice. I fed, changed and snuggled with him until Dad came…just in time to change his diaper and give him his 5:00 feeding. When Brian was changing his diaper I noticed that the gavage tube was out of his mouth, so either the little guy yanked it out, or it came out during the transition to his isolette. We think he pulled it out! It worked out well for the next feeding when we came back from dinner because the new nurse (and new to us) was very eager to get Andrew going on bottle feeding. We haven’t tried lately, because he hasn’t been interested and they have been increasing his feeds, so they just wanted him to adjust to that. Before we fed him, we stripped him down to weigh him and give him a little sponge bath. He didn’t mind this, but he didn’t like having his leads (monitor wires) changed. I don’t blame him; it was so hard to watch the tape being pulled off of his tiny little body. We then had a nice lesson on feeding him. I’ve fed a lot of babies…but there is a lot to know about feeding a preemie. It can be a little scary because he just doesn’t have the suck, swallow, and breathe routine down. That is going to be our phrase for the next few weeks. So there were a few times where the monitor would go off because he just doesn’t remember to do all three. They have assured me that he will not be allowed to go home until he can eat and remember everything. So we are so lucky that we had the nurse that we did tonight and hopefully she will be assigned to us tomorrow night!