First activities in Special Care Unit

Dad and Mum woke up early, had breakfast and the goals of today were listed on the activity board in the room by the nurse:

• Spent time with little Brett 
• Learn how to do the bath
• Improve nappy skills
• Express colostrum every 2-3 hours (every microliter counts for premmie babies)

First thing in the morning, Oma ringing to see how the first day was after the birth, so Mum was on the phone for ages.

I am staying in Special Care Unit and am on an apnoea monitor still, but this is just a precaution. My nappy is being changed every 3 hours right before my feed. My feeds have increased from 20-30 mls every 3 hours.
Mum tries to do almost all of my nappy changes, she even came in at 4am in the morning this morning to change and feed me. She recovered perfectly from the delivery and Dad is keeping a close eye on her and telling her to rest, which knowing Mum ( she is not doing!)

Dad went home to spend some time with Maui and Molokai ( as they must be in shock as well with nobody at home). On his way back he picked up Kate at the University, as she also wanted to meet me.

There was also a little surprise that afternoon at 2pm: Mum was allowed to bring me back to the parents room and out of special care untill the next feed at 5 pm! Mum loved it and cuddled me a lot, especially because we did not get to share any time lying next to each other since delivery. Mum watched me sleep the whole time.

 I even started to have my first hiccups when I was in Mums room (I had them almost daily, when I was still growing inside Mum). Mum made a little video of it.

At 630pm, one of the nurses showed us how to do the bath and I seem to enjoy it. I was also measured at 47 centimeters with a head circumference of 31.4 cm.

Mum did the first bath and Dad helped her with everything. I will be having a bath every other day.

Dad loves to cuddle me, especially nose to nose, as he just can not believe that my nose is so tiny compared to his.

Mum and Dad try to do as many of the tube feeds and nappies for me. My schedule at the moment is (7am,10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm). The feeds at night (1am and 4am) are mostly done by the Special Care Nurses, as Mum needs her sleep. Mum is starting to see expressing colostrum as a sport and since the milk has not fully kicked in yet, every microliter of colostrum is being pushed out manually with a lot of care. Mum wants to make sure that I get my nutrients sooner rather than later! Until the milk kicks in, the nurses give me formula in my tube and add the colostrum microliters each time as it does contain all I need.