7:20 am Noah was born.
Our 32 week old beautiful, healthy baby boy. I can't think about that too long or a flood of emotion pours in. And frankly, I must get to getting milk for Noah, and don't have the time. Just a quick moment to pause and reflect at how happy he has already made our family, made us even stronger of a couple and individuals, and ever more reliant on Jehovah. We know it is not by our strength alone that we are faring as well as we are. Life is good.
Saturday felt pretty good to wake and get a big dose of milk for Noah to bring to him today. 45ml! The milk is not quite "in" yet, but I am tirelessly now having hour long manual and machine sessions together each time I pump. There goes my hands free pumping sessions for now. I am hoping my arms and shoulders will be quite ready for some tank top wearing from all the upper body work that goes into these pumping sessions. This is my sole purpose right now and nothing is getting in the way of it, if I can help it anyway. Pray for NO curveballs here! Pray for milk!
Ok, so another wonderful morning visit/breakfast with Olivia and Matt. I love this family time. It is very limited right now, but is so precious. Quantity family time will come very soon, but for now the quality of the time we do get together feels good and Olivia and I both feel as content as can be with it. At least she seems to be content with it. She is a pretty independent lady who enjoys variety, thankfully. Hm, sound familiar?
Off to the hospital to visit Noah, and who is behind us? A car group of friends (Jnte,CD,KH,WL,SG,TD,MH,) who were out in the ministry! They saw us pull in and wanted to say hello. It was so nice to see the familiar faces. Of course, another mom friend (TD) who hadn't seen Noah yet, or myself wanted to some in for a brief visit. What a nice surprise. A little paparazzi style, but spontaneous, and welcome.
Noah is pretty sleepy, but works a little then I get to relax with him and enjoy our snuggle time. We finish up and I get upstairs and eat and head back down, meet up with my Mom, and head to the nursery to pump. The time today is transitioning fast and I feel about 15 min ahead of the day all day so far. An amazing feeling. Like I need to add something in?? Or NOT. I managed, to sit in the sun for about 3 min waiting for my Mom, not inhale my food, text a few people.. hmm that's about it. But that is huge! I am feeling in a groove, a rhythym coming on now. As long as I stick to the training schedule, tight I know I will get through these next few weeks feeling as good as can be. And so far I feel really great!
I have a nice visit with mom and she gets to see Noah again since last weeks "deliverance". What a relief for us all to be a week away from that. 9 kids, I don't have time to count the grand kids, and still a first. A first premie grand baby. We also get a visit and coffee drop off from a friend (LM) and a surprise treat of brownies. cookies and a home made card from 2 little friends. (S &S G) That was so nice of them to do that and it warmed my heart. They got to take a peek at Noah while he was on me, from a distance. I would have loved to get a pic of there precious faces. I think they could have stared at him for hours. Better than any newborn expo at a zoo any day.
We head out of the hospital and get home, have a quick chat with the poor neighbor, who was worried about us for months like everyone else. It is nice to see her and have Matt fill her in with the happenings.
I get to spend a few, fun, food, filled extra minutes with Olivia by myself and then head up for a nap. I am figuring that I am getting about 4 hours of sleep in 2 hour chunks of time at night and 2, 1 hour naps in the day. about 6 hrs total a day. Not alot, and very broken up, but it is enough for now and ALL I can possible get. Just enough to not impair my milk production coming. Hopefully!!
The evening slips, still feeling a few minutes ahead of schedule, to think, pause strategize for the next day, hold Matt's hand. Nice.
We get into the nursery and Matt takes full care of Noah's temp and diaper change and gets some good time holding Noah. He seems quite alert and looks at his daddy. Yes, they look alike.
Noah gets to me and does some practice nursing. He is eager and showing off his skills. About 30 min or so, then he starts getting tired. The nurse tells us that we could try a little of a bottle feed, which he had in the middle of the night before last already succeeded in taking. We are thrilled to be in on this! Matt takes Noah again and feeds him with the little bottle. He takes about 5cc's and then gets burped by daddy. Matt's skills are coming back fast. He tries a few more times to give Noah the bottle, but Noah is looking very sleepy. So we get him back over to me and let him rest and eat. Ahh, my snuggle time. I am feeling more comfortable with his tiny size and moving him and positioning him, etc. My baby handling skills are coming back fast, too, I suppose.
We get him back to bed, and snuggled up with a new hat on. The one I made is stretched out and looking floppy and fell on the floor. I am hoping to make another one. But we had a back up from a wonderful friend that we put on him tonight. (AN)
We head home and slip into the evening. I get to bed a little later tonite, after a snack, a shower and a really, really, long tiring milking session. I didn't get as much as I hoped to, but enough it is. At least my hair is clean.
Noah stats: Noah grew overnight! He is up from 3.9 lbs at birth to 3.11 lbs. Go Noah. Great work little man, and everyone who is making this possible.
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