NICU

Something about sleeping on daddy's chest just puts Aidan right to sleep
One of his first baths. He obviously did not like this part
After the bath he was laying under a heat lamp and zoned out. Sure wish we had one of these at home. (Notice the cords...one is attached to his foot to monitor oxygen saturation and the others are various probes on his chest)

Here are some pictures of Aidan during his 3 week stay in the NICU. We are pleased to let you know that we were able to take Aidan home when he was 23 days old. Basically this time was spent waiting for his suck, swallow, breathing coordination to develop and for him to gain weight and strength to eat on his own. I have been pumping like crazy since he was born and we have been feeding him breastmilk from a bottle. It is easier for preemies to get milk from a bottle because it requires less effort on their part. When he would get too tired from that we would put the rest down a tube that went through his nose into his stomach. Eventually he became stronger and took all feeds from a bottle (nursing about once a day). So then we thought we would be able to come home. Aidan had other plans.

The entire time we were at the NICU Aidan had monitors attached to him monitoring his heartrate and blood oxygen levels. The morning we thought we were going to go home he had what they call an event where his levels went down to a level that is concerning for the doctors and then the nurse stimulated him to help him recover. When this happens it guarantees us another 5 days to make sure that it doesn't happen again. This isn't to say that he wouldn't have recovered on his own (we all have periods of apnea but recover quickly) but since someone felt it had gone on too long and stimulated him, they didn't want to risk him doing that at home. This was very hard news to take since we had finally set our minds that he was coming home. Fortunately time flies by in the NICU and 5 days later we were able to come home.