Shameless

Really, I can be quite shameless at times. Take today for instance. The doc that had Ray walked in room D looking for another patient. I called out to him, made big gestures to call him over, and asked if he was looking for Ray and I to tell me that it was fine for me to start breastfeeding him starting with his next meal. To which he replied, that no, he was looking for a baby getting ready to go home, but that he thought that would be fine. I called out to Ray's nurse (who was laughing at me), "you heard that, right?" to which she agreed. So, I did breastfeed Ray and it went great. He had none of the problems he has with the bottle. By my guess he drank about 35 - 40 ml as I pumped after and got 49 ml from the breast I fed him from and 85 ml from the other. He's been drinking about 40 of the 45 offered to him, but starts dsating big time and having slow heart rates towards the end when being pushed the last little bit. While he can't regulate himself well with the nipples they use, he had no problem from the breast. He would still dsat into the mid 80's, but come right back up with no big dips at all. He still would suck, suck, suck, breathe, breathe, breath instead of the suck, swallow, breathe.

Room E was much more pleasant with today's nurse who didn't even hold it against me that she had Nora the first day there were born in room A and I didn't remember her. She said, yeah, they never do, I don't take it personal. When I asked her if she liked working in this room, she said, no way, I'm much too social for that. And, she said the first thing she asked was how the other baby is doing and if he could go back soon. Sadly, he had a bad night last night, but she felt if he was stable, he may be transfered back in a few days. One can only hope. I was telling her the three ways I came up with for getting the babes back together again (other than them both getting sent home) and she agreed. One, is the other kid getting transfered out. Two, is getting Nora declassified from MRSA colonization and since the nurse today said they aren't going to test her until she is off vanco (the antibiotic she is still on) and she has 11 more days on that ...it isn't going to be soon. Three is to get another ECMO patient who would have his/her own nurse since they wouldn't be able to share with the MRSA kids and then convince a charge nurse they should move Ray in to share. LOL. Hey, something to pass the time, but oh so bad to wish a babe had to be in that room.

Anyway, today was a relatively good day. Went to preschool with Max which was my last time with him for this summer program. Talked to my boss for a bit on the way into the NICU and got to try to feed both of my babes. Granted, breastfeeding Ray was much more fulfilling for me than attempting to get Nora, who basically has no interest at the present moment in "nippling". However, once I put the bottle away, Nora was nice and awake and gave me lovely smiles and we had a lot of eye communication and I whispered sweet nothings to her and kept my lecturing to a minimum. I'm going to bed happy tonight.