Having "kick time" on the ground - he is working on rolling over :)
In the swing
Cuddling with daddy
Little Mr. Nicolls minus the feeding tube!
Aiden has been doing so good since he came home. It has been a fun, exciting, exhausting, laughable, challenging and wonderful 3 weeks. Jeremy and I are learning how to be parents and nurses to a preemie at home.Feeding Aiden was difficult the first 2 weeks, he was constantly having to be tube fed and at one point stopped wanting to take anything from the bottle. Last Saturday we needed to change out his feeding tube and decided to just not put it back in and see what happens. We also changed his formula, started feeding him every 2 hours instead of every 3 (he was getting 60 mls every 3 hours) and experimented until we found the right bottle/nipple combo. Well, something worked because we haven't put the tube back in. He is taking 45-50 mls every 2 - 2 1/2 hours all by bottle and has been eating over his required amount everyday. We don't know if he just didn't like the feeling of the tube in his throat or if changing to every 2 hours made the difference, but he is now telling us that he is hungry and we no longer have to force a screaming baby to eat.
He has been re-casted twice since we have been home and currently he does not have a cast on. His orthopedist showed us how to massage his feet and we have been doing that a few times a day. He will most likely get casts put back on both feet when we go to see his new doctors at Shriners next week, but for now he has a little bit of freedom :) The doctor also said his hip is doing better, Shriners will now see him for that as well. It will be interesting to see what Shriners does, they specialize in babies and children and I hear that they just do more "kid friendly" things - better casting techniques, etc.
He also has had another eye appointment and another hearing test. His eyes look really good but he failed his hearing screening on his right ear, so we have added another specialist to our list and Aiden will go see a pediatric audiologist in May to do a more complete screening to see if there is an issue with his hearing in that ear - it could be nothing or it could be that he can't hear some tones. We'll see, but we are trying not to be too concerned, we hear preemies fail the screenings for no reason often.
He is still on 1/4 liter oxygen, we have an appointment this week with a pediatric pulmonologist that will be watching his lungs and help us to wean Aiden off the oxygen and medications that are helping his lungs, so we will be interested to see what he says. The home health nurse measures his oxygen saturation when she visits and it has been at 100% each time for the last 2 weeks, hopefully we can start to lower his liter flow to get him off the O2 soon!
Other than all the appointments, Aiden has been doing the typical baby things with us - going on walks in the stroller, being held, playing with toys on the floor, being held, playing in his swing, learning how to hold his head up, being held, trying to fit his whole fist in his mouth when he is hungry, grabbing at our hands/his bottle/our clothes and being held. He has turned into a wiggly little boy and doesn't like to sit still for very long - which is a good thing...the more he moves the better!
We love having our little one home and have adjusted to life without much sleep and having him on us at all times. He was content on floor by himself this morning and I was able to make coffee, make formula for the day, wash his bottles from the night, eat breakfast, get his medications and breathing treatment together, and clear the dishwasher all in 15 minutes. Its amazing how much faster you can move when you become a mother!
