A Big Day!!

Wow! So many things happened yesterday that my head is still spinning! Jackson took a full bottle for me at 11am. Yea! The doctor saw him at 1pm and: a) discontinued his lasix, potassium, and caffeine! b) increased his feedings to four times a day! That means 3 bottles a day, one breastfeed, and then we offer him one more bottle after breastfeeding! c) told me to bring in his carseat for his carseat test in the next few days! d) told me that she expects him to come home in the next two weeks! Oh my! and the big news...

Jackson got moved to the seventh floor!!

Okay, so let me tell you the story of how the moved occurred. Throughout the day I became more and more frustrated that he was still on the second floor. Granted, it came in waves. Sometimes I was okay with it, other times I wanted to pull my hair out! All of the wonderful nurses tried to convince me that G was a better place to be, but part of me wondered if that was to help me chill out. I've been waiting for Jackson to promote upstairs for a long time. Ryan and I have talked about it, and he made a really good point. The nurses down stairs (especially the nurses he frequently gets in G who only primarily work in G) aren't used to working with babies at this stage (off respiratory support and taking bottles). Granted, they can all give a baby a bottle, but they don't do it day in and day out like the nurses upstairs do. When I spoke to the charge nurse earlier today (I didn't seek her out, she was just nearby) she indicated that there was no plan to move Jackson. :(
At group tonight, we were discussing not being upstairs with one of the nurse managers and the other families at group. I expressed my frustration and my (somewhat) outrage that other families were getting to move upstairs, especially other families who weren't as close to discharge as we are, and yet, we aren't moving.
So, we went back to see Jackson after group, and his night nurse was starting to give him a bottle. He had breastfed at 5pm and finished taking the bottle we gave him around 6ish (don't worry, he wasn't feeding that whole time, it just took a bit for all of us to get settled). At 8pm, we went to give him another bottle. Ryan took over for the nurse, but sadly, Jackson was too tired and uncordinated to take the bottle. He had a big desat, was holding his breath, and took a bit to finally get settled in the bed and his sats back up. It was somewhat scary, but I didn't panic too much.
On the way home, Ryan and I were talking about the feeding and our desire to move upstairs. When we got home, I sat down to grab a bite to eat, and Ryan came in with his phone and said he was going to call the charge nurse and discuss Jackson's move to 7th seventh floor. I was shocked!! For those of you that know Ryan well, he isn't the type to take the initiative and call about something like that. Work related matters, he's all about it. But something as mundane and not critical as moving Jackson's upstairs, I didn't expect him to call without my bugging and nagging him, which I totally didn't do! So, he spoke to the charge nurse and she agreed to try to move him in the next few days. When I spoke to his nurse at 3am she said he was getting moved today!! Granted, she didn't sound too happy about the fact that Ryan had called, but in the long run, I'm sure that it doesn't matter. In the end, we felt Jackson should promote upstairs and be with the people that feed all the time. :)

Stats:
Weight: 5 pounds 9.1 ounces!
Respiratory: None!! One desat episode during feed tonight. No worries.
Feeding: Full feeds. 45 cc every three hours. Calories decreased to 24 (the doctor wanted to "monitor his weight gain on the calories he'll go home on"!)By mouth feeds 4 times per day. 3 only bottles. One breastfeed. One bottle offered after breastfeeding.

Goals:
1. Keep on gaining weight!
2. Take all three bottles per day!
3. Be successful with the breastfeeding / bottle feeding combo!
4. No bradys, apnea, or desats! Tolerate no caffeine and lasix!
5. Enjoy new room upstairs!
6. COME HOME SOON! :)

With love,
Anna