Zachary - Week Seven (and part of Eight) Mon - Feb 8th - Tues Feb 16th

HE IS HOME!!!!!!!!

The slide show contains pictures from the day he came home. Go directly here to also see the videos from the day:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sirizarry/20100210?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7lgZi1mtf8XA&feat=directlink

On Monday morning, Feb 8th, I called the NICU to get an update on Zachary before my weekly work meeting. I specifically wanted to get his weight from the night before so I could update the blog. The nurse picked up the line and said, He had a great night, we've switched to anytime feedings. we'll do that for 48 hours and you can take him home on Wednesday! Holy homecoming, Cupcake!! After being in the hospital since his birth on Dec 27, 2009 (and since Christmas Eve in utero), Zachary finally came home on Feb 10th!

I've been asked a number of time by people to tell them about how our days went the past 6 and a half weeks. Busy and stressful starts to describe it, but hopeful and happy finishes it off. We got up as usual and started our day off as usual with me dropping Todd off at the train, this time the commuter rail and not the Red Line. I returned home to try to get some work done in between pumping, doing preemie baby development research, checking in with friends and family -- by the time 2:30 pm rolled around, I always felt like I had done a terrible job at any of the tasks I'd tried to accomplish. But, even with the stress of that, I couldn't help feel elation as I packed up my freshly expressed milk, laptop, purse, and fresh clothes for Zachary and made my way into Boston. My goal was to make it in time for his 4pm care time and to possibly nurse at that time. If he was sound asleep, we would scrap plans for nursing and just do the NG tube. Either way, because he has reflux, it was best to not jostle him during or after a feeding, so we'd have to hold him the entire feeding (1 hr 15 min) if we wanted to hold him at all. In between feedings (which started at 4hr intervals), we were supposed to let him sleep as soundly as possible. At around 6pm, I'd put him back in crib and pump for 20 min. By this time it was close to 7pm. I'd whip out the laptop and try to get a little something more done before Todd arrived, but this time I was sitting in an even more distracting place. Todd would arrive at the NICU sometime between 7 and 8pm. At 8pm, we'd start all over again with care time, holding him until 9:3o pm or so with me getting in another pumping session. It would be 10pm by the time we got home, some nights we'd just stop for fast food, other nights we'd start cooking or heating up dinner. We'd both try to do a tiny bit more work or get something done in the house. Undoubtedly, I'd pass out on the couch only to struggle with myself to get up and pump before I could really go to sleep. Some nights, Todd would head to bed and I'd stay up for a final pumping around midnight. Even with the discomfort of the suction, I'd fall asleep pumping only to wake up and hour or so later with the suction cups attached and the pump still going. One evening this happened, I found a large amount of expressed milk in one of the collection bottles when I woke up. i thought to myself, great, at least I have something to show for falling asleep sitting upright with a damn mechanical pump attached to my breasts for the last 2 hours. Bleary eyed, I fumbled the collection bottle and spilled all of the hard-earned milk. Did I cry over spilled milk? You bet I did. But through it all, I kept reminding myself: Zachary is fine, he's fine, we are so thankful he's fine. I know there were other families struggling with worse health issues than Zachary...Zachary battled the sepsis like a champ, his cardiac murmur is likely innocent, and his acid reflux can be managed, but I am sure those families will tell you the same, it's your personal journey that matters. I have been lucky enough to receive counsel from one of my dearest friends, Tiffany, whose daughter has leukemia....you wouldn't believe the can of whoop ass that family has opened up on leukemia. One of the ways Tiffany has found her way through the last few years is to look for the silver lining. She encouraged me to do the same. And here's the silver lining: it's you. You out there reading this, looking at the pictures, sending us good vibes. It's the community that has rallied around us and little Zachary. It's the encouragement we have received from you all as we've stumbled over boxes in our new house over the last 6 weeks of just trying to make it day-to-day. We thank you.

Now home, I am sure we will many of the same issues all new parents have and maybe a few more or less from the usual. His first full week home went really well. He's had his first guests, his paternal grandparents and uncle. Also, as a preemie, he has a nurse that makes home visits to check on him. We're doing the typical routine, he sleeps, he wakes, we change him, we feed him, we hold him (at least 20 min to ward off reflux), we put him down (on his very sloping mattress, again to ward off reflux), rinse and repeat. When he's a bit more alert, we throw in a tummy time or a side lying time. As a preemie who was under the bilirubin lights for two weeks, Zachary is advanced at head control compared to full term infants born at his current gestational age. One of the nurses at the pediatricians said "wait til he can pick his head up and move from side to side". Zachary proceeded to show off and do exactly that. Zachary will typically go 2 to 3 hours between feedings. Some nights, Zachary sleeps longer and Todd and I will wait as long as possible before we are forced to wake him up for his feedings (preemies are highly discouraged from going more than 4 hours, with 5 hours being the absolute longest interval suggested). As of Friday, Feb 12th, he weighed in at 6 lb 2 oz!