Weekend updates

What a busy weekend! There is a lot to update on. Yesterday, after 2 days of attempting to breastfeed with little success, they decided to put the NG tube down so that they could feed Matthew milk and wean him off his IV nutrition. He still really hadn't ever opened his eyes much or really acted that alert. That made me a little concerned. He tolerated his feedings very well. My parents, my brother Curtis, and Megan and Mason also came up to visit. Micah is in Kearney with a good friend of his until today, so he hasn't gotten to see the baby yet. It was nice to see everybody.

Yesterday, I was also dismissed from the hospital. Steve and I will be staying at the Rainbow house, which is a wonderful place for out-of-town families to stay when their children are hospitalized. We went and checked in and then had supper there. All of us then went back to the hospital to see Matthew again. My mom noticed that the thumb on the hand his IV is in was very swollen. We had the nurses look at it, but no one could decide if the IV was actually blown or if he had worked on the tape so much that it was making his thumb swollen. They made the decision to restart his IV. More pokes, yuck! So after they had tried numberous times, they weren't able to get another one in. The nurse practitioner even tried in his head. So they called the neonatologist and he said he would come in and see what he could do. He came in later and said that since he was tolerating his feeds so well from his NG tube that he could leave his IV out, and that they would just continue to bump up his feedings in his NG. Halleluia!! Steve and I were both sick of that IV! We were both so happy!

We both left around midnight for the Rainbow house. We had to stop on the way at Walgreens and pick up my pain medication.

I woke up around 5am pretty uncomfortable. I hadn't slept flat since I'd had the c-section; my bed was always just reclined. So I had Steve just bring me up to the hospital and he went back to bed. I was able to sleep so much better in the recliner at his bedside.
Matthew woke up around 7:45 to eat. He breastfed about 5-10 minutes which was good for him. Then the nurse hooked up his NG tube feeding and while we did that he woke up for about 15 minutes and looked around. He has NEVER done that either! He was so alert. His nurse even said he was a different baby today. I think it's because he doesn't have his IV feedings anymore. So we have made great steps this weekend! We 're hoping this only leads to getting home soon!! We're ready!

Here's some cute pics

Self portrait

Eyes wide open this morning while he was getting his feeding. Isn't he sweet?

Steve insisted that he take pictures of everyone kissing Matthew!