December 18th is significant because it was the official due date for my pregnancy. Today is exactly 38 weeks from the moment of conception, or 40 weeks the wonky way they count from the start of the cycle. The due date is only significant because they will use it to calculate adjusted age when measuring developmental milestones. The boys are 8 weeks old but won’t be doing what an 8 week old baby would normally do. They will hit 8 week baby milestones 8 weeks from today.

I am doing my sleep over at the hospital tonight and so I only have my phone in order to be able to do the update. I brought the laptop but Brendan hasn’t given me a break enough to be able to use it. I am grateful for the speech to text feature of the phone! The pictures will have to get posted later .

The good news so far tonight is that Brendan passed his car seat test. I have passed all my tests as well, proving that I am able to use the equipment. I am hoping to see some sleep tonight but it is not likely. I will post more later on, for now it is time to go!

It was a learning day again at the hospital today. The home care team delivered his oxygen bottle that we will use to transport Brendan. We also received our portable pulse oximeter and the enteral feeding pump and supplies. We will have to call the service when we get him home to arrange for the delivery of the O2 concentrator.
I had to remove and replace the feeding tube in Brendan, it is really no fun to upset him so much just so that I can learn, but it went well and now I am confident that I can take care of it at home.
Brendan has to pass the same car seat test that Trevor did – one and a half hours of sitting in the car seat without losing oxygen saturations or having other breathing problems. He is bigger than when Trevor came home so we don’t expect any difficulty. We had the carseat there today but ran out of time so we will do that test tomorrow.
He will have his hearing screening tomorrow as well.
The last thing that we have to do before he is allowed to leave is “24 hour nesting”. At least one of us must stay with Brendan for 24 hrs and take care of all of his needs and medications under the nurse supervision. It is our final test to be sure that we are ready to care for him at home. Since Trevor is not allowed to stay overnight, we will all be there during the day and then I will sleep over with him while Bill takes Trevor home.
If everything goes well, Monday could be homecoming day!

Brendan received more gifts today: A Chocolate scented sparkly moose, two cute little outfits (size 6 months – wow do they look huge right now!!), a small crocheted receiving blanket and a knitted hat.

It is funny that Trevor is wearing the same thing as in the last pictures of the boys together. His cute-o-saurus outfit is too adorable and this may be the last wear he gets out of it. He is growing too fast! Brendan may be able to wear it at least once, we hope!

There is a size difference, but Brendan will catch up!

Is it a major fashion faux pas to combine socks with trucks and a shirt with dinosaurs? Is it like polka dots and plaid?

Brendan truly enjoys being held and has so little of it so far. That is about to change!

We had a busy day today. It was lots of training time for us with Brendan – meeting lots more new people, getting briefed on all of the resources that we will have available to us and when to use them.
I worked with the ostomy care nurse today and helped to change out Brendan’s bag. Unfortunately, she was not very prepared and made quite a mess of everything – leading to having to change his PICC line dressing and his entire bed and nest setup because of poop everywhere. I did learn everything I needed and in a way, her fumbling made me realize that I will do a better job of it at home and that even if I am not good at it, it can’t be as bad as all this was.
Brendan was pretty upset, but a little sucrose on his pacifier goes a long way to calm him down.
We both held him for a while and gave him a rest from all of the fussing and mess with the wires.
During his time with me, we moved the cannula off of his nose and he spent 35 minutes breathing entirely on his own. He still desats while crying and while too active, but they believe that he recovers quickly and may be able to get off of the oxygen before coming home. We would still have a tank and cannula to give him if things change.
Even though he will go home with a pulse-ox machine to keep track of how he is doing, visually his color and behavior will tell us more about his condition than the machine.

The pacer wires were finally removed today!! Look at all that skin showing!

The only thing left is that PICC line in his leg, and that will be removed just before leaving for home. Everything else that is attached is a monitor or sensor.

Trevor was pretty wiped out after a day at the hospital. But after his late evening feeding, he seems to always have a nice long stretch of awake time.

Here’s a baby in a baggie! Arms going fast!
This baby bag was a gift at my office shower, and at the time I thought it was HUGE. It sure did not take long for him to grow in to it, and his little toes are hanging out the bottom.

Doesn’t this pose look dramatic?