we just got the call and Ethan has the all clear…he is home for good YIPPPEEEEEEEEE
His iron levels went up (from 72 - 81 for those interested) and the Dr is happy with that.
Discharge details….weight 2645g!!!!!
We are just over the moon here!!!
I am so excited, guess who i am holding!!! Yes Ethan is home on gate leave!
So nothing permanent yet, he has to go back for another lot of bloods and if they are ok he will get to stay home. If not he goes back into the nursery without any problems or hassles.
Sunday is weigh in day in the SCN. Today Ethans weigh in was
Weight gain - 185g
Total weight - 2460g
| She (that resident) didn’t learn her lesson though because she got in trouble from another paed yesterday for taking another baby’s blood before it was meant to be taken!!! Ugh what is with some Dr’s!I don’t know maybe it is just me being over going to the hospital but people are really starting to bug me. Had a nurse that didnt even introduce herself until midday and then proceeded to stand over me while i fed him BUT the most annoying thing was that Ethan always drinks more than his quota, he is meant to have 66mls but he quite often drinks 90-95. So she gave him…wait for it…66mls!!! Poor little man sucked it dry and was still trying to suck. Then she started carrying on because he had a little vomit, he needed to burp but wanted to suck and obviously that wasn’t going to work so he burped and the same time he was sucking and had a little chuck.
But today is a new day and hopefully he will have a different nurse. On the upside he is still gaining weight fabulously, yesterday he gained another 85g for a grand total of 2280g, has has hit 5lbs! |
Today i went shopping, thought i would take a little break for me before going into the hospital. Of course the break for me turned into a shopping trip for Ethan.
We went to Toys R Us and they sell these divine little teddy bears that come with a star! So now we have named a star after our little man and he has this gorgeous teddy and also a certificate.
His package also arrived from Early Birds, OMG the clothes are too cute for words. It was so exciting being able to dress him in things that actually fit and well are very cute as well! The paeds love his clothes, they are so easy for them to do his checks etc, apparently they haven’t seen them before!
This is going to be a bit scatty, haven’t slept very well with so much going through my head.
Ethan has been doing really well, he is on full suck feeds and reaches his quota without an issue. He has been gaining weight like a champ, today is weigh day so i am curious to see what it is now.
Now why i am getting sleepless nights??? Well his iron was keeping steady, which was great. It means that everything was doing what it should, the iron supplements etc etc. THEN some needle happy Dr’s came on. He has his bloods done last Thursday and the instruction was to repeat it in a week, easy enough to understand right?? WRONG!!! He had more blood taken on Monday and then MORE again yesterday!!! So of course now his results are showing his anaemia is getting worse! His paed, the NUM and also the staff agree that the more they take the worse it will get because his body isn’t getting a chance to replenish, plus he wont be making his own red blood cells until he is about 6 weeks old anyway!
So yesterday the Dr (a resident i believe) came over sprouting off at me about how they are going to give him a transfusion and i think my questions to her didn’t go down too well because she didn’t know how to answer! I guess us parents are supposed to sit down and shut up!! But i am sorry , someone has to be my sons advocate and protect him and his rights and if i have to do it i will!
So silly little resident Dr got the big boss, he came up and we had a chat…even though we have a previous not so good history (long story but similar situation with dumb residents!!). Anyway, he agrees no more blood. He was actually quite angry with his residents with continuing to take blood. As far as he can see Ethan is asymptomatic (no symptoms) of anaemia. He is a bit pale apparently (he doesn’t look too bad to me) but he feeds well, wakes up for his feeds and isn’t lethargic. If his iron drops lower or he does show symptoms then he will need a transfusion but he is hoping that he will kick it on his own as he is gaining weight and gaining well.
His Paed also said about considering discharge on Monday…certainly not getting excited bout that. I have learnt to not gt excited until you have the discharge papers in your hand and are walking out the door. He wants to make sure he is still gaining weight, so he gets weighed today and Sunday. Also just to keep an eye on things. So of course that is great news but you know what, after everything that has happened i am terrified of him coming home!!! I hate going to the hospital and miss him so bad but the thought of having him here scares the living daylights out of me!!!
Cant believe Ethan is already 18 days old!!!! Time is certainly flying by. Apparently he has been demanding feeds overnight so we gave the A-ok for him to have bottles when wanted overnight, YAY!! Obviously that is a great step!!!
Today was weigh day, unfortunately it wasn’t handed over that we wanted to be there when he was weighed, I wanted to get a weight pic (at least one because we have missed out so far) so we sadly missed his weight. Next weigh day is Wednesday, I am sure they wont forget to hand it over again! We also gave him a bath, OMG he certainly isn’t that sleepy little boy I bathed at Liverpool. He didn’t like it and was happy to let anyone within earshot know it! But well worth the crying to be nice and clean afterwards.
He has been attempting a breastfeed once per day. Last night I think he would have been happy to stay on ALL night, 45 minutes and he was still going! Decided to pull him off though to let him rest, all the feeding is so tiring for him. Then tonight he wanted to play silly buggers. At first we thought it may have been because let down was too slow but nope he was drowning in milk!! He has decided that he doesn’t like the left side for some reason, not sure on the go there. But even after a good half an hour he was still wide awake. I tried the get him down and settled but it was a tough task. He was drifting off when I put him down so hopefully he stayed that way and didn’t start wailing as soon as the door closed behind me. Having a tough time getting him to latch on properly, his mouth is teeny and event he nurses have struggled…and well it is getting quite painful.
So a pretty good day 
Have got one of his nurses totally interested in modern cloth nappies LOL
Oh and because I almost forgot, he has passed his birth weight!! WOOHOOOO Today’s weight was 2195g!
Ethan’s SBR finally started to come down. It was 175 and the last test it was 140, he is looking less and less yellow now which is lovely. He has another lot of bloods today, please everyone keep everything crossed that his iron levels haven’t dropped any lower. It has been so nice having a “normal” baby for the past couple of days!! Hopefully it has gone up a bit or not dropped any lower, he is having lots of awake time and crying when he is hungry unlike before where he just slept all the time.
Got my Motilium script…says it takes up to 5 days to increase supply…lets hope we make it LOL!!! But am willing to try anything that fenugreek is nasty but i think it is the high dose they tell you to take…CRAZY!!!!
Oh and he had a half feed last night, sucking one that is. He done so wonderfully and then only needed half a tube feed top up!! YAY!!!!
Well there is nothing exciting happening, which is always good. He is being a good little man. Sleeping and eating, just the way it should be.
We found out that for him to come home he has to meet 3 bits of criteria.
A)has to weigh more than 2000g, which he already does according to their scales
B) be more than 36 weeks gestation, is currently 34w5d
C) be on full sucking feeds for 48 hours. Dr thinks there will be no issue with the sucking, he goes anything like a little trooper!
Well Ethan is officially a patient at Campbelltown!!!! YAY!!!
He was transferred over this afternoon. I am so happy. His jaundice levels didn’t rise…yay hopefully this means that it is going to start going down now. His red blood cells are a bit low though so they have put him on iron supplements, hopefully that works because i would love for him not to need a transfusion to bump it back up.
Been really bad with the expressing and haven’t been doing it when i should, i think it just gets to a point where you need to do other things. Feeding a baby is different to having to hook yourself up to a machine every so many hours. So i am going to have to get back into it as of today, it was so much easier when i was in hospital!
Oh and he can wear clothes now!!! Now i just have to find some small enough