A few days in

I'm feeling surprisingly well.  Very tired, but well.

Bertie hasn't been able to be in our room, and I'm going home today.  Hopefully he'll be coming home with us, but we don't know yet.  Tomorrow is likely, if not today.  Because he was a preemie, and had some issues with pulse ox, and heart rate, and now jaundice, he may need an extra day or so.  I'm sad to think of having to leave him behind.  But we're only about 15 minutes away, so it won't be far.

My dad has been here to visit everyday.  Aaron's folks came Thursday, and Saturday. Sophie came to visit on Saturday, and Nana Ginny came on Friday.  So we've had lots of visitors.  My mom sent flowers.

I'm still not getting a lot of sleep, obviously.  My milk hasn't come in yet, just colostrum.  We've been supplementing with formula, but not using a bottle.  The formula is put into a syringe (20-30 mLs at a time), then a tiny tube is used to get it to his mouth, and we do that while he's sucking on our fingers.  He's getting better at latching, and sucking.  But since he's not getting the reward of food, he gets bored with it.  We're working on it.

Yesterday we had a scare.  His heart rate randomly dropped to 60-something.  It did this 3 or 4 times.  So they started running labs and tests.  The doctor came and told us he might have an infection, and would have to do a lumbar puncture.  (Actually Aaron had run home to care for the dogs, so I have to call him with most of this).  When he arrived, we called Scott Crow (from church, and an orthopedic surgeon with Kaiser) to come help give Bertie a blessing.  While Scott was here, my dad arrived, and then Janet and Sophie.  So we ended up telling every one what we knew.  But things improved, his EKG was good, chest x-ray was good, blood work started to come back good.  So it looks like he may just have a lower resting heart rate. That was a relief.

This morning, he's a little jaundice, so we're still waiting and hoping for him to come home with us.  I'm out around noon.

Here are lots of pictures!