Excited to be home and surrounded by our own things (albeit most of those were still in boxes following a quick shift from our house and into a rental house nearby), Robin and I threw ourselves into getting Nate settled. Robin took two weeks leave from work, and we established our three hourly routine between us. Nate was fully breast feeding, and spend his time either sleeping, feeding and cuddling.
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| Put to bed the very first time! |
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| Me and the kids! |
We both really enjoyed these days - days that seemed stress-free compared with our hospital time, and with two of us to tend to Nate, remarkably straight-forward. It felt amazing to feel like we were now in a phase that was more 'typical', because while Nate was still small and we expected the standard premature-related issues, we were able to do all the things that all new parents and newborns can. What a treat!
In addition, we had been given freezer meals by close friends and family - while Nate was in NICU, but also once we were all home - and that just made life SO much easier. Too many people to thank here around that, but a HUGE thank you to all of you:-)
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| Hanging with Daddy |
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| Cuddling with Mummy |
Nate continued to show his personality in his small moments of awake time, and we delighted in his funny facial expressions and noises. Life definitely felt like it was better - with the only real challenge being Nate's continued growth and my ability to manage the three-hourly breast feeds and additional expressing. We had introduced one formula-based, bottle feed late at night, which gave Robin 1:1 time with Nate, and me a break for a longer stretch of sleep.
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| Pursing my lips is EASY! |
Granny and Grandaddy visited us on numerous occasions, where Nate quickly got them wrapped around every finger :-). Granny's knitting went into overdrive and Nate soon had cardigans in a rainbow of colours.
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| Bonding with Granny |
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| Just one of Nate's many cardys! |
Of course Nate already had Daddy well and truely 'wrapped'.......
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| The boys snoozing (the dummy is Nate's) |
Over this time, the NICU HomeCare Team called on us regularly the first two weeks to ensure that we were settled. These visits would see Nate weighed and measured to check that his growth was consistent with his growth curves, and we eagerly looked forward to them as a gauge to how he was faring.
However in the third week, inspite of eating every three hours, it became apparent that Nate wasn't growing as he needed to, or as he should. When not feeding, he spent most of his time asleep, and he seemed to lack energy.
All sorts of things crossed our mind as to why.....from poor milk supply, poor milk quality, too small to suckle properly, a lack of energy, a need for a fattier formula, a possible failure to thrive, and so on. However overall, we felt that he just wasn't getting enough energy in, as a result of the energy he was having to exert to feed, so we made the decision to re-tube Nate to allow for additional supplement feedings, and to help him gain the strength to breast feed properly. While it was disappointing to have to take that step, we were relieved at the next weigh-in to see that he had made progress :-)
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