Update on the Boys

Owen

I was discharged from the hospital Saturday morning, but Mike and I decided to use the “hotel stay” and spend another two nights here. We figured it would be easier then driving all over the valley to see our babies. This way we could be with Caleb at Alta View and then go and visit Owen at IMC.

I am so grateful to Mike and the help he has given me while I’ve been in the hospital. He has stayed with me every day and night and I love it that we can share this experience together and that he is here for me and the boys. He gets up in the middle of the night to help with anything I might need, he is willing to go run errands for me and he is super cute with the boys and I can tell he loves them a lot.

Here is an update on both of our little boys.

Caleb: He is doing well and we are happy that he is at this hospital where we can just walk down the hall to the nursery and hold him and feed him. He still has an IV and they are monitoring his body temperature, heart rate and oxygen intake. He has lost some weight. His birth weight was 4 lbs 10 oz and he is now down to 4 lbs 5 oz. However, I’ve been told it is normal for babies to lose some weight after birth.
He was eating well when we first started feeding him but yesterday and today, he has taken a few steps backwards. The nurses held off on giving him a feeding tube as long as they felt they could, but he has been getting so tired while eating that they had to make it a bit easier for him temporarily, so they gave him a feeding tube. We had hoped that Caleb would have kept eating because when they have to give a baby a feeding tube the baby automatically has to stay at least another 48 hours in the hospital. The reason being is because once they take the tube out they will have to monitor the baby for another 48 hours to make sure he is eating right.
Caleb is a sweet boy and we love it when he is awake and we can look into his big, bright eyes. He likes to wiggle and move his arms and legs a lot. He likes to fall asleep when I’m feeding him, so if anyone has any tips on how to keep a baby awake during feedings, please send them my way.

Owen: He is doing a lot better. Saturday when we went to visit him, he was off the CPAP machine and on oxygen. Today, when we went to see him, he was off oxygen, so that means he was breathing on his own. He is on a feeding tube, but the nurse told us I could try breast feeding him. I got him to latch on, but he fell asleep within two minutes. Oh well, I was able to hold him the rest of the time and he just slept in my arms. It was so nice to hold him.
At birth Owen weighed 5 lbs 11 oz and he is now weighing 4 lbs 12 oz. He got as low as 4 lbs 9 oz. This little guy had a tough couple of days at the beginning, but he is starting to make a great turn around.


Caleb