Luca, Day 3 and More Pics

Here's an update of how our little Luca is doing so far:

On Tuesday, his breathing tube was taken out, and he was put on a CPAP. The CPAP provided room air with a little positive pressure, so he did not have to work so hard to breathe. On Wednesday, the CPAP was taken off, and he's been breathing on his own since (yay!). He still has some apnea spells (where he stops breathing), but that's apparently normal for premies his age, and most of his spells are over quick and he's been able to correct it on his own without the nurses coming to help him out. It's sort of like his brain forgets to tell him to breathe-because it's not really supposed to have to breathe yet! The NICU is watching him closely, and hopefully he'll grow out of these in a few days. It's scary to think of him having episodes of 'not breathing', but we are hopeful that he'll get it soon!

He's started eating formula. He's not developed enough to take it in by mouth, so they are feeding him with a nasogastric tube right now. He's up to 25 ml every 4 hours, and they are increasing it every day. As the feedings increase, they decrease the amount of sugar water that they give him by IV. Once he is up to the full feeding every 4 hours, they can take out his IV.... I can't wait for that day!

The NICU was worried that his peeling skin, which can still be seen in the photos below, was due to an infection. They have now ruled out any skin infections, which is a big relief to us. It was no fun hearing about all the invasive procedures they did to make sure he didn't have an infection though :(. Poor little guy had to go through lots of blood cultures, and even had to get a lumbar puncture to check his spinal fluid for infection! I'm just happy they didn't find anything.

Every day he is looking better and stronger. Once he's off the IV and he no longer has the apnea episodes, he can be transferred to another hospital. We're looking forward to having him transferred to South Shore Hospital, which is 5 minutes away from us. Much better than an hour plus ride into Boston.

Lisa and I have been kangaroo-ing him everyday. Basically, they take him out of the incubator and put him down our shirts so we can have some skin-to-skin bonding time with him. It's a nice way that we can start connecting with him more, since it's tough with him being in the NICU.

On Tuesday night our friend Joc came by and took a few pictures of Luca. Thanks Joc!
Here are some of my favorites:

Here he is when he still had his cpap to help him breathe

mom holding him

skinny legs

tiny foot

tiny hand

*** WARNING ***

*** Shameless plug for a friend's business ***

If you like the above photos, which we really do, you can find out how Joc can take photos of your family here.

Luca, Day 1

Luca is doing pretty well today. They took out his breathing tube and put him on a c-pap machine, which is much less invasive. He's been on an IV so far, and he probably will be for a while. They are going to start trying to feed him with a tube today, to try and get his digestive system working, and see how he tolerates eating. Hopefully he will meet that milestone soon!

We were there this morning while he was being examined by one of the doctors. When we took off his diaper, Luca peed and almost hit the doctor. Urinary function, check!

Here's what you really care about, pictures:

Luca last night in the NICU

Mommy taking a look

Luca on the c-pap machine. "I'm ready for my scuba diving lesson!"

Snuggling with Mommy

Luca Marshall Silvestro

Luca arrived at 3:51 pm today, seven weeks early. He rocketed out with one push, but he's a pretty little guy. He cried a little bit at first, but he's got really small lungs. He's breathing on his own, and he quickly went from blue to pink. He was whisked away to the NICU, so we didn't get to spend too much time with him.

Here are his stats:
4 pounds 10 ounces
17 inches

Here are the first few pictures:

Doing well!

Look at me Mom!

First cuddle with Mom

Today's the Day! (We Think)

We think that today's the day that our new son is going to make his entrance into the world. After being on bed rest for 9 1/2 weeks, Lisa's uterus has had enough. She started feeling very intermittent cramping the last few days, and after her normal OB visit on Thursday and a Friday night phone call, we decided to go to the hospital last night to get her checked out. Turns out that she's 4cm dilated, so they transferred her to Beth Israel.

Lisa got an epidural around 2am last night, and that stopped almost all of the contractions that she was having. When they checked her this morning, she was 6cm dilated, and now it's up to 7cm. Lisa is resting, and things seem to be moving along well. I expect the baby will be born in a few hours.

Lisa after her epidural. All smiles!

Ringing in 2012!

Happy New Year!  Mike was joking around that he was bummed we wouldn't get a tax break in 2011 now cause I've managed to keep this baby cooking!  That's fine with me, no premature babies needed for us.  Things seem to still be stable, as we inch closer to a healthy due date of Feb 27th!  We are excited and looking forward to meeting this little guy.  We feel he's going to be our luck dragon, as 2012 is the year of the Dragon according to the Chinese Zodiac.

New Years Eve was full of friends, laughter, and good eating; as we spent this year in what is now our 3rd annual tradition of having our friends the Bentzels, Ottavianos (complete with their 2 Portuguese Water Dogs), and Carr family over!  I'm getting EXTREMELY used to having people over, and just sitting on the couch while everyone caters to me.  It's scary!  All the kids managed to stay up to watch the ball drop... except ours.  Zoë was totally done at her normal time of 7:30.  Vince did make it till about 11pm which was surprising, but when we came downstairs to prepare for watching the ball drop, we came upon this. 

Mike woke up and carried a limp, sleeping Vince to bed; and we celebrated with champagne/apple cider

My good friend Kathryn is due with her second baby only a few days before me, we had to get the obligatory belly shot

Happy New Year to everyone!  The only New Years resolution I can think of is to keep this baby growing in me until at least the beginning of February!  Oh yea, and update Vince and Zoë's darn baby books before I have a third kid and none will ever get done!