Cutie Patootie
That is what the nurses in the NICU call Porter. One day we came to the hospital to see him for the day and one of the nurses called him that. It has stuck. This little cute has been a miracle from the day we found out that we were pregnant. He amazes me everyday at the progress he is making in the NICU, as parents Heath and I worry all the time. I worry every second of the day about this little boy of mine, but he reassures me every day that he is here for a reason and he wants to be here so he fights for it. I am so blessed to have such a strong little spirit in my life and that he chose us to be his parents.
After Porter was born they hooked him up to a ventilator. He was having a hard time breathing even though he came out kicking and screaming, he still needed help his lungs were not developed. This was all to be expected. He was on the ventilator for 2 days and then was taken off and put on a lower dose of oxygen with humidity. All the nurses were so impressed with how well he was doing! It was a couple days after that (around day 4) that he had his first bowel movement! Who knew that you could be so excited about that, but we were ecstatic! That meant that he was processing everything through his intestines and his kidneys were functioning properly. He also started taking in around 3-4 ml. of milk through his feeding tube (a low dose as to not startle his stomach). In the NICU there are 9 rooms. The first room is connected to the room where I delivered Porter by a window. He stayed in room 1 for a week exactly. Porter was given a nurse to care for him one on one 24 hours a day. There is one nurse assigned for one baby. Porter was then moved to room 2 after the first week and it was one nurse for two babies. This is when I was able to hold Porter for the first time! He was finally stable enough that I was able to do skin to skin and have him hear my heart beat. It was wonderful! I will always remember the first time that I was able to hold him, he was so small and fragile but as I held him I couldnt help but think about how amazing he was, I told him about Arland and his daddy I whispered to him about how much we loved him and how proud we were of him. I sang to him softly so that he could remember my voice from being inside of me. I was so special.
Porter was moved from room two to room three the next day! They say that the big babies go to room three through nine! My baby is anything but big, he is doing so well on his oxygen that they decided that he could handle being in room three! I was so surprised when I got to the hospital that day! They have a board that parents can look at to see where their babies are and who their primary nurses are. So when I saw that they moved him I was so proud!
He is still in room three and will be there for a VERY long time hopefully. He has one nurse to three babies and is doing extremely well. He is still on oxygen and they moved his feeding tube from his mouth to his nose because it was starting to irritate his mouth. His oxygen has continued to come down every day. We breathe oxygen at a 21 and he is usually at a 21! They keep the cannula in his nose to help him remember to breathe, and sometimes he has to have his oxygen level increased up to a 23-24 but for the most part he is doing really well on the lower oxygen levels! He is also now learning how to control his own body temperature, and they are thinking about putting him in a onesie soon. Porter now weighs 3 lbs 15 oz. Once he hits 1800 grams they will be able to move him from his isolet to a crib which is a HUGE deal. He is so close to this goal now. They are also fortefying his milk. Like I said, when he was first born he was taking around 3-4 ml. now he is taking 31. The milk I give him has 22 calories in it and they add an extra 24 cals to it. We are hoping this little boy puts on some weight!
I go to see Porter every day. Yes it is hard, but he is my baby, Porter is just as much my baby as Arland is and I would do anything for both my boys. They mean the world to me, and that is why I go to the hospital every day. Porter amazes me by his strength every time I see him. The other day I was holding him and he started to breathe really heavy, I couldnt tell why he was breathing the way he was so I asked the nurse what was going on. She said that he was retracting and that I needed to put him back in the isolet. She then took a hose and sucked out his nose. She got the biggest booger out of his nose! The poor boy couldnt breathe because of it! Because I go every day to the hospital I am able to learn about him and the different "cues" that he gives off to the nurses. Learning all of these things really will help me when I get to bring him home, just like when I noticed that he was having a harder time breathing. I love going up there and holding Porter, I love to watch his little face when he is sleeping and I love to see his little eyes open and look around. I love his little cry and the little facial expressions that he makes. I love to tell him about his brother, I love to tell his about Arland and all the fun things they are going to do together, I love telling Porter about his daddy and how much his daddy loves him. He is making so much progress and we continue to see little miracles in Porter every day, he is our little ray of sunshine and we are so blessed to have him here with us today.
