Matthew Aaron-Thursday, March 4- Morning

Matthew and I had a wonderful night!

Our 4 blessings:

As I was posting yesterday evening, the nurses were working on the blood draw for the genetics test. They need 10ccs of blood and they were able to get 5ccs. This was a huge accomplishment as they have tried no less than 6 times for this particular draw and were never able to get even 1cc. Thankfully his sample can be gathered at different times, so they will work to get the second half later today. (Blessing 1)

Over the last few days, I’ve been having symptoms that I’m doing too much for being a few days postpartum. Not a surprise. Sleep is rare. It is a hike to go get food and to pump every 3 hours. I’ve probably walked more since Monday than I did the week before Matthew’s birth. So to ease our minds and to make sure my symptoms were just from overdoing it and not more, I called my midwife Jane last night. We talked about what was in the range of normal and what I needed to be on the lookout for. She asked that we check my blood pressure and keep an eye out for a few things. During our conversation, Jane also suggested I pump next to Matthew instead of hiking to the milk bank. What a wonderful suggestion. I didn’t even know I could do that! I’m so glad I called her! (Blessing 2)

The days go slow but somehow fly by right now. I looked up at the clock yesterday and it was 7:30p. I thankfully got a room at the Ronald McDonald house again. It is such a wonderful place and unbelievable how good a few hours of sleep feels. I knew I needed to check in to get my key and then head to the other building to grab a bite to eat at the cafeteria. I was dreading all of the walking, but really needed to eat. When I walked into RMH, I was already a little emotional because I was grateful for the room and I flat out cried when they had dinner there. (Blessing 3)

Enter an answer to our prayers, Nicole. She is Matthew’s very compassionate night nurse. First, she found me an adult blood pressure cuff. (My bp is a little high but not alarming. We'll keep an eye on it.) Then we bathed Matthew. For the first time all day, he was wide wake. It was fantastic! Given his huge blood draw earlier, we allowed him to sleep while he took his 6p feeding through his NG tube. With him awake, we needed to try the bottle again at 9p. We tried the special OT recommended bottle and he wasn’t interested in it at all. Nicole recommended we try the traditional bottle again. She watched him eat and commented “he eats like a preemie and let’s try this…” Her suggestion worked like magic. He took almost all of his feeding through the bottle. We just had to finish up a few ccs on the NG tube. The same for the midnight feeding! I got a few hours of sleep, and did Matthew so his 3a feeding was NG tube. His 6a feeding was 2/3 bottle! Talk about an answered prayer!! (Blessing 4)

We have so much to be thankful for…our beautiful 5 day old Matthew, (and Alyssa and Jackson too!), the love and support of our family and friends, the smart doctors and compassionate nurses here at TCH, yesterday, last night, and today!