the first week home,

experiencing the wireless life

I can't even explain just how good it feels to finally have Mason home. We spent the week getting into some sort of a routine and it has actually fallen into place much more easily than we would have imagined.

Believe it or not, we're actually getting a reasonable amount of sleep. Most nights, Mason is sleeping from about 11pm until at least 4am. We've worked out our shifts so that Mommy usually has the last feeding of the night, and Mama has the first feeding in the morning, so that we can both get a pretty solid block of sleep.

We were expecting him to have a hard time with the quieter atmosphere, but Mason handled the lack of noise just fine. He also did very well with all noises, including barking doggies.

We used an oxygen saturation monitor for most of the week during the night, so that we could make sure Mason handled the transition home well, and so that we could rest without worrying. This also allowed him to sleep on his tummy (which is better for his lungs) without us having any worries. By the end of the week though, once he had proven he was doing fine and we were comfortable, we stopped monitoring him.

Not everything has been so easy though. Specifically, feeding Mason has been a challenge for several reasons. First of all, it only took me two days to figure out that maintaining a 6-8x a day pumping schedule was impossible, especially while I am caring for Mason on my own most of the time. (Mary won't be able to take time off of work until Avery comes home, and she has grad school every other Fri night and Saturday until she graduates next spring.) Because Mason isn't nursing well consistently yet, pumping is necessary to keep up the milk supply. It was a tough decision to make, but I have come to accept the fact that continuing to provide breastmilk won't be possible while trying to maintain my sanity at the same time. If it wasn't for the need to administer 6 medications daily (4 oral, 2 with a nebulizer) it could be a different story.

Because Mason is now getting mostly formula (Neosure, specifically formulated for preemies), his digestive system seems to be reacting. On the second day home, while trying to maintain the NICU schedule and quantity for feeding, Mason was spitting up a significant amount after nearly every meal. We've done a number of things since then to reduce the spit ups, including following Mason's cues instead of a schedule, and getting approval from Mason's pediatrician to increase one of his reflux medications. I'm happy to report that he is now making it through the day with very little coming back up. Unfortunately, he still clearly experiences some pain from the reflux in the middle of most feedings.

Mason's first visit to his pediatrician was on Thursday. She was very impressed to see how healthy Mason appears, given all of the hurdles he has faced due to his early birth. She said his lungs sound great and he's still growing at a great pace, weighing 10 lbs. 11oz at the appointment. He was approximately in the 90th percentile for weight, 95th for length, and 95th for head circumference on the growth chart for preemies born under 1500 grams. He behaved really well at the appointment, and we survived our first outing with a baby *whew*. He will continue to see the pediatrician every two weeks for now, as well as the 3 specialists he will be following up with on Monday, including: a cardiologist, a pulmonary specialist and an ophthalmologist.

All of the pets have adjusted very well to having Mason home, almost as if they expected him. We had been allowing the dogs to smell Mason and Avery's dirty laundry that we brought home from the hospital over the past months, so maybe that helped. The cats haven't changed their routine much at all, much to our surprise.

Mary and I both underestimated how emotionally tough it would be to have Avery alone at the NICU. With Mason home and experiencing so much, it is very hard to see Avery still so confined in a small crib of a crowded nursery while he continues to slowly heal. We can't wait to finally have him home with his family, with the opportunity to join Mason as he learns and explores new things at home.