Saturday, April 30, 2016

Life After NICU - I'm Going To Break That Machine!!





Anastasia's growth this week: 

Weight: 2322 Grams!! (Was 2270 Grams)
Length: 44.5 Centimeters  
(Was 44 Centimeters)
Age: 11 weeks old 
(Should be 38 weeks gestation)














Tuesday
If you thought bringing a newborn is hard try adding medical equipment to it. Then throw in a toddler, sleep derivation due to the monitors and you have my day today. Our living room and bedroom look like the NICU with all the gadgets. Yet, I'm so relieved that she's home and all three kids are home together. 
Char returns to his crazy schedule tomorrow and I have no idea when I'm going to get more then a few hours' nap here and there. I know the medical things but it's nice having a nurse in the house. Oh this is going to be interesting to say the least. I want to sleep, clean, hold the baby, play with Rory, read with Heidi, spend time with Char all at the same time. Char says it's all about time management and balance. It's just going to take time to find that balance. 

I've decided to treat this as a journal. It's easier to type and later print this then try to hand write everything. Besides, paper doesn't have spell check (yet) and I need that when sleep deprived.  

Wednesday
I've learned not to respond the the alarms until it beeps more then 4 times. Less then 4 just means she's wiggling. Anastasia has days and nights mixed up (I think all babies do). Last night was good, we got to sleep for 4 hour spaces before she got up. 
Feeding her is a little hard, She has to have a medication mixed in with every bottle. So we make a small bottle and feed her when she's super hungry and doesn't care about the taste. By the time she realizes the rouse she gets a real bottle. Yeap, we make two bottles at each feeding. 

Rory thinks of Anastasia as a toy. He likes to tap her on the head and try to pull on her oxygen and monitor cords. After a while he just goes back and plays by himself. He's starting to walk too! He can cruise just fine but he seems to lack the desire to walk.I swear he thinks "Why walk when crawling gets me there just as fast?". But now he's taking steps, almost as if he now thinks "I'm not the baby anymore, sigh, guess I'll walk." 

Tonight is the first night Char is back at work and I'm home alone with Anastasia. Char's mom came over to visit Anastasia and to take Rory for the night, which helps out a lot. Tomorrow Anastasia has her appointment with her pediatrician, we'll see how she's doing.
Wish me luck tonight. 

PS. Washer broke, off to a good start. 


Thursday
ARRRGGGG!!! I'm going to kill those monitors! They keep going off even when everything is fine. It kept me up when Anastasia Sonia Rose wasn't. She kept me up for three hours straight. If I put her down she'd cry and cry. To say the least very little sleep last night.

Today I took Anastasia to the pediatrician. It was quite the feat, I packed her monitor and a small O2 tank into a hiking backpack. I carried that around while holding her in the car seat. I even held it while we weighed her. Apparently, Anastasia is tiny for even her gestational age. 3rd percentile for weight and 5th for length.  It took nearly an hour to review everything with the pediatrician. She wants to see Anastasia once a week until she's 4 months old just due to all her issues. 
Then I meet up with Char's mom at a gas station to pick up Rory. Then began the long drive back home with 2 screaming babies. Once home, I tried juggling medical equipment, 7 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn. 

This would be easier if I didn't have these cords tethering me down. It's not like I can carry Anastasia over to where Rory is playing / getting into things and just pick him up or play along side him. But I have to put her down, get settled, and then get Rory. 
Or feeding her, which is 40 mls every 2 hours. I have to mix two bottles for her and a bottle for him. I put Rory in a play pen, give him a bottle and settled. Then I get her, feed her the medicine bottle, followed by the real bottle. Then hold her upright for at least 30 minutes while Rory is realizing she's getting cuddles and starts to cry for the remaining 29 minutes.
Which also means I'm living off of 90 minutes naps at night. 
This is just a phase, right? Right?

Friday
Last night was scary. I had to switch oxygen tanks by myself for the first time. I did something wrong,the tank made a loud HISS sound, her alarms went off, and her stats started dropping quickly down to the 50s, then she became a bit on the blue side. I forgot Char was working and screamed "Char, HELP!"  so loud that it woke up Rory and Heidi. When I remembered he was at work, I texted Char pleading with him to call.Mean while trying to Goggle "How to switch O2 tanks". Char called and walked me though it. 

Poor Heidi was scared to death and was worried Anastasia might die. She was weeping saying "I love Anastasia, she's so cute I don't want her to die!! I just got a sister, I don't want to lose her! I only got to hold her once!" I calmed her down, calmed down Rory, then took time to settle my nerves. 

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