First Steps of the Journey

Joshua David Harrington, born February 15, 2007 at 4:48 AM. He weighs 690 grams,
(1 lb 8 oz) and is 12.5 inches long.

Dave got to see him 3 times before I was able to get up and go and see him. Around 2 pm, a mere 10 hours after surgery, I took my first walk down to the NICU to see my son.

Now the steps you have to take here are in stone. There is a 3-minute hand wash that is required. Betadine soap for 3 whole minutes. Doesn't seem like a long time until you are scrubbing your hands for that long, and if you get soap on anything, it is stained yellow. No jewelry on your hands unless it is a plain wedding band. Dave takes his off and of course, mine need to go to. We can pin them to our shirts, I usually just stick mine in my pocket.

Then off to see the little one. When I first saw him I thought that he was bigger than I had imagined in my mind! He is hooked up to tubes and monitors and leads. But he is here, and breathing and looking beautiful.

Medical stuff going on today? He is on a vent, but about 40 breaths out of 58 are spontaneous (meaning they are his own). He is on a small amount of oxygen, but mostly room air. These are all good signs! We thank God that we were here for a week and able to get the steroid injections to help his lungs develop. He had surfactant poured into his lungs after he was born to further help him along. His blood work looks good. They do Arterial Blood Gasses every 4 hours, Hemaglobin and Hematocrits, Electrolytes.. all to monitor his progress. They take a lot of blood, so he eventually will be transfused. He just can't replace the blood on his own as fast as they take it. One unit for a normal adult will last him 30-60 days.

We met with the lactation consultant today. She informed us that we need to have a medical grade pump and not the kind you can get in the stores. The ones in the stores are meant for woman who have babies that are nursing and they are pumping to supplement that. We, on the other hand, have no baby nursing and have to keep the milk supply up so that we are able to breast feed normally when he finally gets to come home. So we are going to rent one, freeze the milk and bring it here for him. He needs this, as breast milk has so many more nutrients that they just can't get in formula. If it's as good as the stuff I was producing with Arran, he will fatten up in no time! The downside is, I need to pump about every 3 hours or more. The lactation consultant here says every 3 hours, my consultant at home says 8-10 times a day. I have to be comitted to this and I am. I know that this will give him the best start ever and he really needs this.