Eating, Eating, Eating

Jeff and I have worked out a schedule where he tries to sleep from 9PM to 12-1AM. Then, we do our shift change, which always takes a bit longer than one would expect, and I sleep from 1-5PM. Last night, I ended up going to sleep around 2:30AM, because I had some work to do. When my parents are here during the day, at least one of us tries to take a nap. I was the lucky one today that got some sleep while my mom took care of Henry in the afternoon.

Henry didn't sleep much this morning or this afternoon. He slept for maybe half an hour on my chest. He started up the eating constantly in small doses again. This made it impossible to do his massage today; the timing wasn't right. But I did force him to spend a few minutes on his tummy, because tummy time is really important for him building up his neck and back muscles. I read something online that said that many kids today are crawling later than they use to because of the whole "Back to Sleep" prevention of SIDS. Henry sleeps often on his tummy while in the Danny Sling because of his reflux. The tummy position is actually the preferred position for the Danny Sling. One of the nurses recommended it. And, one doctor independently suggested it as well. Putting them on their back when sleeping is supposed to decrease their chances of having SIDS. So sleeping on the tummy is a concern. But we only do it when he's hooked up to the monitors. His crib doesn't have any toys in it and doesn't have bumpers along the sides (again, for SIDS prevention). We are also having him spend some time on his back. Because once he's off the monitors, he'll need to sleep on his back.

Dr. Bianchi called this afternoon. He talked with Dr. Hassan and decided that we should give Prevacid a try as a replacement for Ranitidine (his current acid blocker). The nice thing about Prevacid is that it lasts 24 hours; Ranitidine only lasts 12 hours. Prevacid is stronger, and Dr. Bianchi hopes that this will help with Henry's vomiting issues.

We weighed Henry today at 6 lbs 1/2 ozs. Jeff also used our baby scale to weigh our cats: Princess (8 lbs 4 ozs), Bits (8 lbs 10 ozs), and Jackson (8 lbs 14 ozs). We're a little concerned about Jackson. He has a tendency to stop eating when he's stressed. I'd prefer to see him weighing a few more ounces than he does. I was surprised that Princess was over the 8 lbs mark. She's usually more like 7 lbs. Bits is holding her weigh well; she's mainly muscle.

Jeff and I finally managed to give Henry a bath. He was two days overdue. The prior evenings, Henry was always eating. Then, Jeff had to get to bed (he has to get some sleep). So bath time didn't work out. Tonight around 6:30PM, Henry seemed like the bottle he'd consumed was going to last him a little while. So we moved quickly and got him bathed. He seemed to enjoy it tonight. We took his cannula off while we bathed him. And, we both agree that having the cannula off made him happy. He has been fighting us on keeping the cannula in his nose for a couple days now. At his gestational age, he is supposed to be self-soothing by putting his fingers in his mouth. He does this a little bit, but more often, his hand touches the cannula tube when he touches his face, and then he spends time trying to rip it off. He made himself upset the other day because he got his hand underneath the tubing and then pulled really hard, which made the "tender grip" pad pull on his skin as he ripped it off (it would be like ripping a really sticky band aid off one's face). Anyway, he looked super cute without his tubes. We made the bath rather quick, because we didn't want him going without his oxygen for an extended period of time. Henry was wiped out by the bath and snoozed in the towel in my arms as Jeff put on the new cannula. Henry's moved up a size on nose pieces (from the 1601 to the 1615), which means he's getting bigger. Jeff did an excellent job putting on the cannula. Instead of the "tender grips" to hold the cannula in place, we decided to go back to the duoderm on his skin and then Spiderman bandaids to hold the tubing on top of the duoderm. This should make it more difficult for Henry to take his cannula off.

My dad has been holding Henry since his bath. Somehow, my dad manages to get Henry to eat quite a bit without vomiting. He has the touch. Henry usually has a very calm disposition when he's with his Grandpa. Henry is currently sacked out on my dad's chest. It's about 10:30PM, so I think that we'll have to risk waking Henry up, so that my dad can go home and get some sleep himself.