Week 37...And Day 30 In The NICU

Brant is officially full term today....37 weeks!! :) It is so weird to adjust to calculating his age in two different ways. 4 weeks since birth but 37 weeks gestation. I guess you eventually get used to it. They say that by age 2 almost all preemies have caught up...so I guess you don't have to do it forever. :)

So much great stuff has been happening with Brant in the NICU in the past week. He is rockin in there! :) He is 3 lbs 12 oz already, and he is still on 8 bottle feedings per day, volume as tolerated. He has been taking an upwards up 50 ml at some feedings which is almost 2 oz at a time. That is huge for a 3 pounder! :) That is why he is growing so well. My sweet little boy! :) He had his eye exam and he passed it with flying colors. They said his eyes are still immature but that is to be expected when you are born 7 weeks early. He will have another one in 2 weeks. They also did a follow up scan of his head (they did one at birth to look for any brain bleeds, etc)..and he did perfect on that one too. Praise God!! :) In short, he is doing incredible! :)

When he gets to 1800 grams (4 pounds) they will move him to an open crib. Since he was at 3 lbs 12 oz, they called me yesterday and said they were ready to move him on Wednesday...so a little bit early. The doc and I talked about keeping him in there for just a couple more ounces so we could be sure he was 4 lbs. I am all about getting him home as soon as possible but I also want him to GROW. Preemie babies lose a lot of calories trying to keep themselves warm in the open crib....so I just wanted to be sure he was ready. At this point his warmer is set at 26.5 degrees C (27 is as low as they go to send heat into the isolette)...so at this point they are pumping some AC into him as well! HA! :)

Once they are in the open crib, it is about 48 hours to 7 days before they head home. YAY!! :) So we are getting very close!! We see the light at the end of the tunnel and we are thrilled! The doctor that came in on Saturday told me that it would be less than 2 weeks before he should be able to leave. So that would mean we would have him home more than likely before the weekend of March 26th. It is so crazy b.c that is the week that we were planning to induce! HA! :) God works in amazing ways!! :)

Also...with Brant being full term today, it has been so incredible to watch a baby grow outside of the womb. Most people do not get to witness that, and while it has been a hard road, it has been such a blessing. Unbelievable to see everything along the way and we could not be more grateful for how healthy Brant is. He is truly our miracle baby and we know it is all God. No doubt in our mind!

So we brought his carseat up for the carseat study that he will have to have. There will also be a sleep study before he can head home. We are assuming all of this will happen sometime early next week. This is so exciting!! :)

A lot of people have asked me what I do during all of the hours that I just spend sitting in the NICU (outside of feeding him. bathing him, etc). That is a great question actually b.c I asked myself the same thing before we started this journey. It is amazing how quickly time flies though. I do a variety of things from playing on my phone, to reading books on my Kindle, to writing thank you notes, to just holding Brant and loving on him like crazy. :) Sitting up in the NICU also gives me a TON of time to think. I think about everything like running through the pregnancy in my head, wondering what life would have been like if we did not end up in the NICU. I wonder when Brant actually would have come, and what he would have looked like if he was born at 5 or 6 lbs. I ask a lot of questions like "How did we get so incredibly lucky to have such a healthy baby boy?" "Do I spend enough time up at the NICU with my son?" "Do I spend enough time with Braden and try to keep his life as normal as possible?" "Are Chris and I being a good example for the journey that so many parents face?" "Am I doing too much or too little in life in general right now?" "How will I do it with 2 kids and what will life be like?" "What are these other parents going through that are living up here with us?" "How are their babies doing and are how sick are they?" "How long will they all have to spend in there?" "Was God using this experience to test my faith in him?" So many questions run around in my head so that gives me a lot to think about. :)

I also think about how we picked Brant's middle name to be "Christian". What a fitting name for our sweet boy since we never knew that so many Christians would be thinking about our baby and praying so fervently for him. I think he has been on every church prayer list in the state of Texas! HA! He is so blessed! It could not be a more fitting middle name. I hope he lives out his life in that he responds to others in need in the same way that they have to him. Nothing would make us more proud. :)

I also think about the verse Jeremiah 1:5-"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." What truth there is in that!! God knew that Brant would come early and he knew all that we would go through in order to bring him home before I was even pregnant. That comforts me so much b.c it reminds me that God knows everything that Brant will go through in his entire life already...and he is going to take care of him just like he has now.

I am also reminded of a wonderful song that has these lyrics:
"You are the everlasting God. You don't grow faint, you won't grow weary. You're the defender of the weak. You comfort those in need. You lift us up on wings like eagles." He is strong for Brant and he takes care of even the littlest babies....what a wonderful inspiration!! Our little acorn will grow into a might oak tree one day...and we are so excited for our life with him! :)

My last quick story is that there was an amazing woman in the NICU yesterday morning just rocking babies. She is retired and just volunteers during the week to help rock when the moms and dads cannot be there. I want to volunteer for that! :) She was up there encouraging all of the moms and it was obvious she was a Christian. It was like she was all of the mom's little NICU angel. She was just so sweet and asking how they all were, how their husbands were, etc. So thoughtful. When I went to leave from the morning visit, she asked me to come over there. I was sitting on the far side of the nursery so I had not had any direct interaction with her yet. I was just listening to the conversations. When I got over to her she said "I just wanted to tell you that you are an amazing mother. You have such grace with your baby and I have loved watching you bathe him and feed him...and just hold him. You really are just so good with him." I was FLOORED of course. Literally floored and of course how do I respond? I cried like a baby!! :) I was just bawling my eyes out in front of this woman that I don't even know. She just told me that she would pray for me and my family...and that our baby boy would be able to join us at home soon. I was really touched by her and of course there was a reason that she was in there yesterday morning.

We love you Brant and we hope to be writing blog posts with you at home next week! :) We cannot wait to have you join us soon. Grow baby grow!! :)