Another day of baby steps

That's exactly what we had. Another day of baby steps. Little Hayes had quite a bit to eat today (at least in comparison to what he has been eating - which is nothing). They are trying to get him up to full feedings really fast probably because 1. we want to get him home! and 2. they are running out of places to put an IV. His poor little hands, forearms, head, and ankles are bruised. Yesterday his IV was set at 17mL an hour and today they had it turned down to 6mL an hour. About half of what he ate came from a bottle and the other half was put in his feeding tube. He's not sure what he thinks of the bottle just yet but hopefully he will get used to it quickly. They still had him on oxygen all day and he is still breathing a little too fast at times. He is also looking a little orange again so they are going to take his billirubin levels tonight and depending on the results of that they might put him under the lights again. I got to the hospital a little after 4:00 this afternoon and he was just laying awake in his incubator. I helped take his temperature, change his diaper, and weigh him. He was a little on the warm side (99.9) but the nurse said that his temperature probe wasn't on him very well so the incubator might have just been thinking he was a little cold and therefore making him too warm. Once again he peed all over his bed and today he still weighed in at 7lbs 5oz. Once all that stuff was done I sat down to hold my baby. The nurse gave him to me and within a minute he was fast asleep. Here he is sleeping soundly in his mama's arms.



After unsuccessfully trying to wake him up to feed him the nurse just decided to use his feeding tube. The last time he ate he spit up a little afterwards so they were worried that they were increasing his food too fast. They decided to go ahead and increase it again but give it to him over a longer period of time in hopes that it would be more gentle on his little tummy. If he did spit up this time they would keep him at that same amount for a few feedings to get him used to it and if he didn't spit up they would go up again next time. We were with him for an hour after he finished getting his food and he hadn't spit up yet so hopefully his food continues to stay down and we can get that IV out of him sometime tomorrow. Around 5:00 Ben arrived and we took turns holding Hayes until 7:00. He was completely out almost the entire time! I guess that's what a full tummy and being snuggled will do to you. Here are a few pictures from our two hours of heaven.







Look at that double chin!


I did take a video of him today but it is taking way too long to upload on here and I really need to go to bed. I'll try it again tomorrow.

This morning Maddie slept in a little bit and woke up kinda groggy. Her hair was matted down on one side and sticking up on the other. I thought she looked pretty funny so I took a picture. I love this girl!