Tuesday, October 16: Learning to Eat

Wow, I'm a slacker! It's been a few days since I've updated the blog, but not much has really changed. Oh ya, except that I've become Ashton's personal milk cow, always armed and ready at his beck and call. :-) We could actually take him home right now with the oxygen he has (there is a possibility that will happen), except that he has to be eating completely on his own first. And we're getting there! He's been doing so well the past few days, and he's continually getting stronger and building up his endurance for his feedings. He usually does really well with the bottle, but he's starting to get the hang of breastfeeding, too. At the rate he's going, it might only be a few more days until he gets to go home!

Oh, yesterday Ashton had his first bath! His nurse said that he didn't really like it at first, but that by the end he was really loving it. So now he smells all yummy and fresh :-) Truth be told, I actually preferred the way he smelled before the bath...he still had that really sweet, newborn smell. Sometimes when I'm holding him I seriously just sit there and smell his head, and I can't get enough of it!

Yesterday, Ashton also passed his hearing test on BOTH ears!!! Yay! In related news, over the weekend he also peed on his face and into his mouth. I could not stop laughing as the nurse was changing his diaper, because he did NOT like it when that happened. The nurse probably thought I was mean for laughing so hard, but I couldn't help it...it was too funny to watch his facial expressions.

I'm convinced that being a NICU mom is more time-consuming than if I were to have Ashton home with me. I'm not saying that new moms who get to take their babies home right away have it any easier, but as we've moved into the learning-to-eat phase, I'm having to be at the hospital all day, every day. It usually takes me an hour to feed him, since first we try breastfeeding and then after we usually have to supplement with a bottle. It's quite a lengthy process--especially when you factor in the time it takes to undress and redress him with all of his cords and tubes and such. Then I have to pump afterwards, which takes about half an hour when it's all said and done. By that time, I have just a few minutes to either run home and grab something to eat, or take a quick, 10-minute nap, and then I'm running back over here to do it all over again. And I can't sleep at night for more than six hours, because I have to pump. And there's no point in going back to sleep after, because by the time I'm done I'm either not tired anymore, or I don't have enough time to go back to sleep before having to be here for rounds that morning. It's pretty exhausting!! But he's definitely worth it. Hey, at least I'm getting six, really good hours of deep sleep since I'm too tired to ever wake up during the night, right?

We're hoping that by this weekend, we'll be able to finally take our sweet baby home!