Day 92

It has been an eventful couple of weeks here for us which is why it has taken me so long to get another post up. Last weekend, Nate really started taking off with his feeds. The doctors had agreed to let him feed orally whenever he was acting interested. That was all Nate needed to hear :) He was an eating machine! He pulled his feeding tube out last Saturday morning during one of his starving screaming fits. The nurse decided to leave it out until he needed it again to spare him an uncomfortable procedure. None of us thought he'd go without in much longer than a few hours but he went all weekend! He took 12 feedings in a row 100% by mouth. Everyone was very impressed with him being a 36 weeker born at 24 weeks and eating like that. They couldn't believe how well he had done. 

Monday morning he started to tucker out. He was pretty sleepy with his feeds and not really waking up for much of anything. Everyone kept assuring us that it was totally normal and he probably just wore himself out with all that eating and needed a break for a day or so. By that evening, he was just getting worse and we could tell he wasn't feeling well. He had started having a lot more spells and his oxygen requirements were going up pretty quickly. The nurse practitioner on that night finally decided to do some blood work to check things out. It came back showing signs of infection. The next 5 hours were spent getting blood, urine, and spinal fluid samples. Poor Nate didn't even have the energy to cry as they poked him :( It was an awful night for all of us. Infections are a serious thing for these premies. 

The blood work came back the next day showing an infection in his urine. They think he must have had a tummy bug that traveled to his urine. They started him on antibiotics, stopped his feeds completely, and put him back on the CPAP for his breathing. He started feeling quite a bit better by Thursday though so we are very grateful that we caught it early and got it treated. Thank goodness he recovered so quickly. They started his feeds back up on Friday and put him back on the regular oxygen cannula. He's such a tough little guy!

Nate picked the worst week to get sick. We had been planning a little service at the cemetery for Macie and Ellie this past Friday in Twin Falls. We waited this long so Nate would be stable and we wouldn't worry so much about leaving him for a day. It didn't work out quite as panned but the nurse we had that day was wonderful and updated us on his progress every few hours and assured us she would take extra great care of him for us. We ended up having a really nice day. It was, of course, super hard but we felt so much better knowing that they are safe and taken care of. Todd and I spent some time that afternoon at the cemetery and then went to the temple. The temple trip wasn't planned but once we were there we realized that there was no better place to be that afternoon. We are so grateful for our little girls and the time we got to spend with them. We love them so much!

We also want to thank everyone for all their support on Friday. The flowers that were waiting for us at the cemetery were absolutely beautiful and the dinner waiting for us at our apartment when we got home was perfect. Thank you!! We are so lucky to have so many great people to call our friends and family. 

Today is Nate's 3 month birthday :) He is 5 lbs 3.8 oz and 15.5 inches long. He has come such a long way! 

Nate's new super cute hats. Thanks again Jamie!

He always has his hands somewhere by his face while he sleeps.  He is such a funny little boy!

I love this picture :)

Guarding his binki