Got Hormones?

First of all, I want to recognize my mom for being the 10,000th person to view my blog.  Way to go, Lo!  I secretly suspect she has single-handedly accounted for about 5,000 of those views because I can't imagine too many people interested in our saga.  Thanks, Mom!  :)

I spent most of the day with Joshua today, and he is looking great.  His official weight 7 days after birth was 1060 grams, 10 g heavier than birth, right on track.  Both measurements were considered 2 lbs 5 oz.  Last night he had his screening head ultrasound to make sure he hasn't had a bleed in his brain.  It was negative!  One more thing to cross off the worry list.  They will do one more ultrasound before he is discharged, just to make sure, but the likelihood of finding anything at that point is pretty slim. 

He has had several episodes of transient bradycardia, where his heart rate drops way down and MY heart rate skyrockets as the alarms go off, and the nurse rushes into the room.  But every time, it normalizes after a few seconds, and he's fine.  The doctor isn't worried about this at all, just something they see in preemies.  It seems to be related to reflux.  They have increased his breastmilk feedings to 4 ml every 3 hours.  He was acting like he was choking, and then his heart rate dropped.  They took out his OG tube (from his mouth to his stomach) and inserted an NG tube (nose to stomach).   We're hoping the NG tube will help.  Plus, now he can work on sucking for comfort.

This evening I went for my first walk with Jeremiah and James in almost two months.  Things have been so crazy lately; I feel like I haven't had enough one on one time with Jeremiah.  Well, after he went to bed, I had a total breakdown (postpartum hormones, anyone?  Ok, sleep deprivation and generally feeling overwhelmed with everything may have also played a part) thinking about how I've missed out on so much quality time with him over the last two months.  I'm just getting used to hanging out with him like a normal mom again and actually playing with him, and I want to spend more time with him.  James is off all weekend, so we may have him take the lion's share of the NICU time, at least until I've had my fill of Jeremiah time.  That being said, I'll probably have a similar emotional breakdown tomorrow night about missing Joshua, so we'll re-evaluate.  Have I mentioned those darn postpartum hormones?