Life with Mitchell...

Well, having Mitchell at home has been such a blessing!! He is such a good little baby!! We got off to a rough start, though. Mitchell can only breast feed twice per day so that he doesn't burn too many calories. So, I decided that I would reserve those feedings for the middle of the night to avoid having to pump and feed him a bottle. Unfortunately, that was a disaster!! He ended up not getting enough to eat!! He woke up an hour later, fussy and I had to get up and make him a bottle (3 oz. breast milk with 1/2 tsp. Similac NeoSure formula for preemies to add extra calories). Then, I put him back in bed and he woke up an hour later fussy!! I leaned over his crib to see if I could smell a poopie diaper and I didn't, so I thought he was just upset b/c his pacifier fell out of his mouth. So, for the next hour I laid in my bed leaning over his crib holding his pacifier in his mouth. I was thinking, "oh my gosh!! What have I gotten myself into!!" then, finally, I got up and uncovered him to check his diaper and he had tee teed out the top of his diaper and had been laying in wet clothes and that is why he was so upset!! So, this was definitely not a shinning moment for my mothering skills~ha!! I felt terrible that I let him lay there wet for so long!! So, Sunday ended up being a long day!! In fact, I didn't get out of my PJs or brush my teeth until 4 p.m. Then, after all that, the NICU called to tell us that Parker was doing so well that they thought he would be discharged on Wednesday. We hung up the phone and felt completely overwhelmed!! I really thought there would be no way that we could do this!! But, for the last 2 nights he has been a little angel!! I decided that when he woke up in the night, I would have to take him out of our room because Kyle HAS to get sleep as he has to work and not be a zombie!! So, I put a pack~n~play in the living room and this is my new routine that seems to be working great!! I prepare all his bottles and put them in the fridge before bed. Then, when he wakes up to eat, I take him out to the living room and put him in the pack~n~play while I get his bottle and put it in warm water and get all my pumping stuff together. Then, I go back and change his diaper and take his temperature. By that time, his bottle is ready, so I feed him while I pump. (I have definitely learned to multi-task~ha!!) Anyways, after that I burp him and lay him on his tummy(even though they say not to, it helps him digest better) in the crib while I clean my pump parts and label and freeze the pumped milk. Then I fill out the spread sheets that I have for my pumping and Mitchell's chart (documenting his feedings, poops, pees, and temps). Then, finally we go back to bed!! This process takes about an hour and a half. But, thankgoodness he only gets up once during the night. So, now that I've been broken into parenthood, I guess we're ready to add another one!!