My Baby Shower

Since Warren decided to come early we had the shower while he was in the NICU.  It was at Bob's Aunt
Molly 's house.  She put on a great shower for me.  Melissa did the games and I had such a great time.  I have best family and friends!

One of the nurses from the antepartum department at the hospital made this blanket

The awesome diaper cake that Melissa made for me

The amazing centerpieces that Melissa made for me

Melissa's poopy diaper game..it was so much fun!

Bob and I opening presents

Warren's first diaper..preemie extra small..up to 4 lbs

The delicious food that was served and the cake!

Me, Melissa, and Sarah

The poster board that I had on display at the shower..

Warren is 5 week's old

Picture's of Warren at 5 weeks old

Warren's first bottle feeding

Since Warren was born so early he needs to learn how to eat.  He is also too small to breastfeed so we feed him expressed breast milk.  About 1 1/2 ounces every 3 hours.  It took some time for him to get the hang of it!

Warren is finally wearing clothes and is in an open crib!

We are getting close now to Warren coming home!  He has finally been upgraded to an open crib.  So far he has spent all of his time inside an isolette (incubator) so that they can control his body temp but now he can control it on his own!  He is also finally wearing clothes. He is now 4 weeks old.

Below are a couple of pictures of us doing some kangaroo care

Warren's First Bath

Bob and I were able to help with Warren's first bath today!  Very exciting..below are some pics..sorry they are so dark!

Warren is one week old

Warren had quite the first week in the NICU.  He was initially intubated but was only on a ventilator for less than 24 hours.  He was given one dose of surfactant, which helps with the development of his lungs.  He was then moved to oxygen (skipped completely over CPAP) and was on O2 for only 3 days.  The third day he was on room air, which is so amazing considering how little he is.  For the first day or two he had a TPN which is how he received all of his nutrients without getting any kind of food.  They then slowly started feeding him very small amounts of expressed breast milk (my milk finally came in yay!)  He started with 3 cc's every 3 hours (1 teaspoon)  and they very slowly upped his feeds.  They need to make sure that his little body can handle food and doesn't develop a potentially fatal condition called NEC, an intestinal infection unique to preemies.   He also had a small meningitis scare and had to get a spinal tap, thankfully that came back fine and no infection was found.  The doctors also had to start him on caffeine to help with the small apnea spells and bradycardia spells that he was experiencing.  He did have a little bit of jaundice and had to be under the billi lights for a few days.    At 5 days old he had an ultrasound of his head which revealed no brain bleed which is very common in preemie's but thankfully he never had any. Needless to say the first week was very scary and very stressful.  Everything was progressing fine and he is such a little fighter.       

Warren's Birth Story

I had spent 3 weeks at home on bed rest then at 23 weeks I was admitted into the hospital and spent another 6 weeks on strict hospital bed rest in trendelenburg position the entire time.  It was about 6:30 pm on Thursday May 20 and all of a sudden something didn't feel right.  I called in the nurse and she hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough I was having contractions, about 2 minutes apart.  They then wheeled me over to labor and delivery.  I was immediately put on magnesium sulfate to help stop the contractions.  That probably was the worst night of my life.  It's hard to describe how crappy you feel on that med.  Since magnesium sulfate is such a strong medicine the nurses came in every 45 minutes to check all of my vitals.  Unfortunately it was not working. My contractions were crazy strong and still happening.  Then at about 6:30 am on May 21st, I got so sick from the magnesium that I ended up getting really sick and once I threw up my water broke.  The doctor came in and checked me and told me that I was 7 cm and that I was having a baby today.

I was so nervous.  I was only 29 weeks pregnant...our baby boy was going to be 11 weeks early.  But there wasn't anything else we could do to stop my labor from progressing.  Next the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural.  Thank goodness for that!  Finally I was no longer in pain.  I was having such bad back labor along with the contractions that the pain was very unbearable.  Then all of a sudden I felt a lot of pressure and Warren Joseph was born on May 21, 2010 at 10:37 am.  Weighing 2 lbs 8 ounces and measuring 15 3/4 inches.  As soon as he was out I heard him cry and immediately knew that everything was going to be ok.  He got 8/9 and 9/9 on his apgar scores which is amazing considering how little he was.  I was able to hold him for about 1 minute before they had to take him to the NICU.   It is still such a blur.  It was probably one of the scariest days of my life.  Thankfully I was at an amazing hospital with a level 3 NICU and I knew that my baby boy would be just fine.