Day 41: October 27

Sam had a so-so night.  Apparently he ran a little fever, which got everyone concerned that he had gotten an infection… or it was possible that the temperature gauge in the isolette stopped functioning, and he was being over heated by the bed.  To be safe, they drew a bunch of blood to check for infection and to do a blood culture.  Turns out it was a good thing they took the blood.  While there was no sign of infection at all, he CRIT was too low.  That meant Sam needed another blood transfusion.  Theresa is convinced this will be his last transfusion, and, honestly, he responds so well to each transfusion he has gotten, they don’t bother me.  The negative was I was not able to hold him until 3 pm… sadly, I got to the hospital at 11 am!  So much for my “4 hours a day in the NICU” rule.

Well, I would say I was fully rewarded for the extra hours I spent in the NICU.  Once we got Sam on his cannulas, we got him settled in the kangaroo hold position.  He did great for about an hour, but then he started to desaturate.  We upped his oxygen, and that didn’t seem to have much of an impact.  Before giving up, I asked if we could try recreational breastfeeding for a sec- just to see.  So, we slid Sam down to my nipple, he sniffed around a second tried to get a bit of the nipple in his mouth, was not satisfied, opened his mouth up wide and got the entire nipple in there.  next thing I knew, he was sucking… and sucking hard!  That little 30 weeker had LATCHED!  God only knows if he was getting milk, but he sure was trying.  He also started to saturate at 100.  This went on for 30 minutes.  I think Sam could have gone longer, but it was after 5, my other breast was leaking, and I needed to get home!

There are not words to describe how great today was for me.  My little one actually latched on to my breast.  It makes me well up with tears when I think about it.  So awesome!

And now for your moment of zen: