jonah - friday, march 13th

Jonah has had a pretty good day today - and by that I mean we didn't have to make any big, hard decisions, he only took his feeding tube out 3 times, and only ripped his bandages off his hands once.

But we both had big, long holding Jonah turns, and he's eaten a little better. He's taken about half his bottles today, which is better than the 10-15 cc's he has been taking. We've tried the Haberman (Jonah's not a fan), a regular nipple (too fast), a slow flow (has to suck too hard) and a preemie nipple. He takes the first part ravenously with any of those, and then gets really frustrated or pained or something and goes nuts - that or he falls asleep. They've started him on Carafate in hopes that it will help a little more than the Magic Mouthwash we've been trying. They are back doing his dressing changes right now. He's had some morphine and some Ativan. I'm not sure how he's doing now, but he seemed pretty peaceful after his last bottle right before we came out to the waiting room.

We attempted to secure the NG tube with Mepitac, then Mepi-something border, and we've got Mepiform on the way. Hopefully they can try again with the border stuff until the Mepiform arrives. I feel like we're trying every Mepi product on the market. I think everyone should go out and buy stock in Mepi-stuff and Aquaphor. I'll make you guys rich. :)

On Monday, Matt and I will probably begin doing Jonah's exercises and stretching during his dressing changes. The OT people have been doing them during the day, but aren't on at night. I'm a little scared about this, only because his hands, arms, legs, and feet are so raw, and I just know it hurts him to touch him there. I wish I could hide somewhere so he never has to associate my voice and smell with that kind of pain. Hopefully he'll only remember the good mommy stuff, and not the painful "for his own good" kind of stuff. Kids are so resilient though. I just have to make sure I give him WAY more snuggles than dressing changes. That won't be a problem.

Jonah is two weeks old today!

I know the paci may be causing some blisters, but what can you do when it's the only thing that will calm him down? We do slather it in Aquaphor, hoping to reduce the friction.

This picture says to me - "I'll just hold it myself. You guys are worthless."


They just came in and said that Jonah's dressing change went really, really well - the best yet! They said he only cried once when touching one of his arms, but this is so much better than the almost constant screaming he was doing before. Hopefully they've found the right combo of meds to make it bearable for him. Praise God for reducing Jonah's pain!

AND, they washed his hair - like, for real washed it - at the sink. They say it's even looking curly. I'm going to go check in on my baby love. I'll take more pics, but may not get them posted tonight. Thanks for continuing to pray for Jonah - small victories, but huge to us!