Bert had quite an exciting post birthday celebration this year! Her tiny son, Gabriel David joined her family at 8:16 am on June 21st just hours after Bert finished celebrating her 17th birthday on June 20th! Her placenta abrupted rather suddenly and unexpectedly at about 4 am Thursday, June 21. She kept calm even though things weren't happening as she had expected labor to begin.
Gabriel weighed in at a mere 4 lbs 10 oz and was 18 inches in length at birth. Initially, he had trouble maintaining his body heat and also had low oxygenation in his blood so he had to spend most of his first 24 hours in the newborn nursery in the incubator and hooked up to a pulsox machine in his tiny little heel. He also had blood sugars down in the 20's prior to his feedings that first day.
The on-call pediatrician ordered him to be bottle fed formula every 2 to 3 hours despite Bert's desire to nurse her tiny son. The pedi said if he wanted the breast after his bottle she could try that (which sounded completely counter productive to me). We did get her consent to syringe feed him his mother's expressed breast milk/colostrum prior to any formula bottles and soon the little tyke didn't want the formula at all but greedily sucked down any EBM we sent for him.
On day 2, the pedi gave the ok to try to nurse before formula feeds as Gabriel wanted his mommy's milk and Bert had a goodly supply going. He didn't quite get the idea of latching on though so things weren't making much progress. On day 3, one of the maternity nurses who is also a lactation consultant suggested Bert use a nipple shield and Gabriel latched on like a pro and nursed for 30 minutes total that session. He continued to nurse at the breast each session and still gobble up EBM from a bottle every 2 hours and by day 4, he was on the gaining end of things. His low weight at the hospital had been 4 lbs 5.2 oz (which had a 1 oz IV splint included there) on Saturday morning. Sunday morning, his weight sans IV splint was 4 lbs 6 oz. What a champ! Doc originally feared he wouldn't be able to come home before Paul, Bria, and I had to leave to return home on Tuesday but because of his fighter spirit, she allowed him to be circumcized and go home on Sunday.
Bert is having a hard time with the demands of feeding a newborn and not getting much sleep. She's doing really well though and I am so very proud of her. Paul and I are very proud of Bert and also deeply in love with that grandbaby! Can't wait to find an excuse to see him again!
And now, what you have all been waiting on, pictures of our little guy: 
3 comments:
He is so sweet! What a cute little bundle! Little people sure make good fighters! Way to gain little man! (And congratulations again to Bert and the new gandparents!)
Thanks Taffy! We think we will keep him! :)
What a cute tiny little peanut! I like that last pic with the wide eyes. Congrats, all!
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