Sleepover at the NICU

Thinking it would save me some travel time, I packed my overnight bag and reserved one of the "family rooms" last night at the NICU.  Since I didn't get to the hospital until 9:30 at night and had to work just down the road the next morning, I figured I could save a trip home and back by staying there.  Turns out it didn't really save much time!  It was nice to be able to kangaroo with Cayden late at night and not have to worry about driving home all drowsy and tired afterwards, but the accommodations were not very accommodating.  The bed was hard as a rock and short-sheeted with three paper-thin pillows.  I heard industrial toilets flushing and heavy doors slamming all night long, even with earplugs.  So I got very little sleep but I must admit it was a nice start to my day being able to see Cayden first thing!

For the past couple of days, I've noticed that Cayden seems to wake up about thirty minutes before his care times.  If I had to guess, I'd say he's hungry!  He waves his arms around like he's trying to catch someone's attention, saying, "Hey!  I'm hungry over here!"  He mushes his tongue around and puts his hands near or sometimes in his mouth.  I mentioned his behavior to the nurse this morning and she said she'd tell the docs at rounds because they may want to increase the amount of food he's getting.  Sure enough, they increased his feeds 3 ccs each feeding to a total of 31 every three hours.  When you multiply three extra ccs times eight feedings a day, that almost equals one extra feeding a day, so it's pretty significant.  He started getting the extra milk this afternoon and has tolerated it well.  We'll see if it keeps him from waking up early - any extra time he's awake is time he's burning more calories rather than sleeping, growing, and gaining weight.

Speaking of gaining weight . . . he's up to 3 lbs. 4 oz. tonight.  Yea!