Home sweet home

Well, we made it through our first 24 hours.  It's been pretty hectic.  There is so much to do and barely enough time to get it all done before the next round starts.  We're having to make up a special concoction of fortified breast milk with Simply Thick added for Cayden to drink from a bottle.  Mixing it up takes a good 10 minutes, then it has to be heated for another 5.  Once or twice a day, he breast feeds for 15-30 minutes.  After that, he takes a bottle for another 15-30 minutes.  If he's only getting a bottle that round, he can take up to 45 minutes to drink it.  Then we have to hold him upright for at least 30 minutes to help prevent his reflux.  Then we can lay him down, but I have to pump for another 30 minutes.  Then we have to wash bottles and pump parts.  The whole cycle takes a good 2.5 hours.  Cayden was going five hours between feeds before he left the hospital but we've been averaging about 3.5 since we've been home. 

Last night, we kept him in the bassinet in our bedroom.  He coughed and gagged and choked and spit up all night long, so I was constantly checking on him.  Jason slept in the room until about 2:20 but then left to go to our guest bedroom so one of us could at least get some sleep!

Surprisingly, I've been too overwhelmed and busy to worry about what I thought was going to consume my every waking moment:  is he breathing and is his heart rate ok?  It's funny.  When you're at the hospital you have the monitors to alert you if his breathing or heart rate drops.  I guess some parents focus on the monitor constantly but I got to the point where I didn't really think about it unless it alarmed.  Well now that we're home and we don't have a monitor, there is nothing to alarm me so I don't really think about whether or not there might be anything wrong.  I do have to admit, however, that in the rare moments that I am away from him in another room for more than 5 minutes, I run back to check on him.

We had the home oxygen delivered last night.  There is a giant cylinder lying flat on the landing outside our bedroom with a 50-foot coil of tubing attached to it so we can wander around our 5-story house.  Apparently, they are currently out of stands for the cylinders but will deliver one as soon as one becomes available.  Seems pretty dangerous to me.  I know that in the lab, fire code dictates that all gas cylinders must be chained or somehow secured to a wall.  Guess that doesn't apply to home use??  It really is a pain and it's going to be a constant battle to keep from tripping over it and the tubing, and to keep the cat and Jamison from playing with them.

I am so thankful that Jason is home to help.  There is literally no way I could do all of this by myself AND take care of Jamison.  My biggest anxiety now is how the heck am I going to pull this off once he goes back to work (which may be sooner rather than later.)  I'm hoping that after a few more days we'll find some sort of routine and figure out the short cuts if there are any to be made to get it all done.

We haven't taken Cayden very far outside of the master bedroom, but it appears that Jason has ventured down into the family room while I've been pumping.  Cayden sleeps best when he's being held upright, so I think they're getting cozy on the couch . . . better go check and see how they're doing!