Notes on our first days

I wasn't sure where I was going to stop the blog, but I decided for now I will keep going. Well, as much as I can. Here are some things I have learned since Wyatt came home:

• Babies are really noisy sleepers. My mom was right about me not having him in the room with us.
• Wyatt had a lot of trouble sleeping in the crib at first. We had him sleeping in his swing. We got a Kiddapotumus swaddler from Roger and Ed and that seems to be the key to comfort. He likes the confinement and that helps him sleep in the crib more. The physical therapist we saw last Thursday said we shouldn't have him sleep in the swing that often as his shoulders will get rounded. Yes, I knew it was a bad idea, but come on! Plus, it is easy to feed him with the pump when he is in the swing. Anyway, we are making progress with getting him to sleep in his crib.
  
• The other thing that would happen when we put him in his crib was he would get "snarfly." He gets mucus in his nose and you can't get it out with the bulb syringe. It makes a horrible noise when he breathes. He eventually sneezes it out, but it was really unsettling when we heard it the first time.
  
• Wyatt didn't like a dark room at first, but he has adjusted somewhat. If he is in his swing in the living room, the TV on mute makes a great night light. It is not so conducive to me sleeping on the couch.
  
• He can sleep in quiet.
  
• Wyatt doesn't actually like to swing in the swing with the motor turned on, but it is OK if you push the swing ever so gently.
• Neither Rus or I have enough guts to trim Wyatt's nails. They are so sharp. He hasn't cut himself, but boy does he dig in to me. I cut one of his nails with the clippers, when I got to the second he started screaming and thought I had cut him, but I didn't. He's a faker. Rus used the nail file, but it really didn't help the situation much.
• He has been home five days and already we have had to re-tape his NG tube and replace it once.
  
• Sometimes the only thing that soothes Wyatt is when he is on Rus' chest, over Rus' heart.
• Feeding Wyatt is a hour and a half process. First, if he needs a reglan dose, you give him that. You try and time that 15 minutes to a half an hour before his feeding. Yes, that works great as I am sure you can imagine. Then you heat up his bottle. Hopefully, you already have one filled in the fridge otherwise you have to mix breast milk and Neosure to fortify the breast milk. Then you try and bottle feed Wyatt. This lasts anywhere from 10 minutes to 40 minutes depending on how tired he is. The balance is put in an IV bag to run through his pump at 80ML per hour. That takes 30-80 minutes depending on the volume. Then you run water through the pump so you can reuse the bag and you wash the bottle and dump the water from the pump. Last, you flush the NG tube with a little water so there isn't breast milk sitting in the tube. Wyatt is supposed to eat at least every four hours, but really it's more like every 3.5 hours.
  
• Wyatt gets Reglan x 4 and Zegeraid x 2 for reflux by NG tube. He gets Pulmicort x 2 by nebulizer. He gets Poly-vi-sol (a liquid multi-vitamin for infants and children) x 2 in his feeds. It usually makes him throw-up.
• I am still breast pumping. I try every two-three hours, but it is so hard to do.