Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! Now that baby Spencer is here, Joy has begun breast pumping to try and provide the vital colostrum (mother’s first breast milk, rich in antibodies) for our baby. She’s been pumping since Friday night and has to pump about every 2-3 hours, day or night. So in-between pumpings, we crashed pretty hard last night. This morning Joy and I woke up, had a quick breakfast and went down to see Spencer. We got a thorough briefing from nurse and all three of us were impressed by how much better Spencer looked this morning. Despite losing 2 oz. (fluids mostly), his swelling and bruising has gone down quite a bit. He’s still quite pink, but nearly as ruddy as yesterday. His right foot, which was swollen and turned when he was worn, is looking a lot better. I got take reach in and take his temperature and I did my first diaper change ever!
Since Joy is still on track to be discharged on Monday, I went home after lunch and scrubbed the house thorougly. Joy and her mother went down to the NICU again at noon and she actually got to hold baby Spencer for an hour! They call it a kangaroo cuddle, where mother and baby get skin to skin contact. He just curled right up on her chest and dozed. It was so precious! Spencer was even taken off the ventilator for a little while today and was given a pacifier. The nurses said that’s a really big deal that he can come off the ventilator, swallow on his own, and suck on a pacifier. Those are big milestones!
The cuddle time seemed to really pay off because after the visit, Joy started producing the colostrum! She wheeled some down to the NICU and they swabbed Spencer’s mouth with it and this evening we were able to take a little more down for his next feeding tomorrow.
This morning, I suprised Joy with a Mother’s Day card and a special charm for her bracelet, a silver peanut! Even though Spencer was in the NICU, he was still able to give mom something special (with the help of the nurses)… a clay heart necklace with his fingerprint in the middle. Too precious!
Happy Mother’s Day!