Week one

Sam has been doing so so well. The Doctors are absolutely shocked at the progress he is making. Sam was put in the NICU as a what they call a 'feeder grower'. He basically needs to just be able to eat and gain weight. He started being fed through a NG tube that went into his stomach. I was able to produce enough milk and colostrum right off the bat that he did not need formula! (I have so much milk that I am feeding my little nephew Johnny who is also in the NICU right now!) The nurse said I have enough milk to feed twins or more! I count that a major blessing! Another major blessing is that Sam is a natural breast feeding baby. The nurses call him a barracuda. We tried a non nutritive feed where he breast feeds but I pump right before, so he is only getting a full tummy from the NG tube. He LOVED it. They then upped him to one real breastfeed a day and Sam thought that was the best! He got to suck and get milk. He went for 41 minutes straight! The doctors quickly put him at 2 nutritive feeds a day, which he passed so they went on to 4 of the 8 feeds to be nutritive. He was slowly gaining weight and eating so great! He got to come home from the NICU after being there only 11 days which is amazing! There are still multiple babies in the NICU who have been there for 28 days plus who still are stuck on non nutritive feedings! Sam really has done so so well. The doctor said that in his 2o plus years of working in the NICU he has never seen a baby like Sam who does so amazingly! It was so nice to bring Sam home, one of the reasons being that Zach and I were exhausted from driving to the hospital every 3 hours to feed him. By the time we got home from the hospital we would have 1 hour until we had to go back. This schedule went on all day/ all night. We both have loved having him home where I can wake up, feed Sam in bed, and go right back to sleep! Amazing!

The day he was discharged Zach brought Sam back from the car seat test and we got to take off all the leads and cords! He looked like a fresh baby. I have never seen Zach so happy to be with his little son, going home, cord free! We could not believe how tiny and adorable Sam looked in his little car seat. It was all such a great experience.

This is random but Zach and I thought that the hospital beds were so comfy! Maybe it was because we were so exhausted, but really we give them an A+!