Nate update, January 31st

Well, today our little Nate is one week old! The week has flown by! And over the last couple of days he's made some excellent progress.

On Thursday Nate finally passed his bloodwork to have the phototherapy lights taken off. His numbers went back up a bit on Friday, but not enough to put him back under the lights. He has more blood work being done today to monitor it.

Nate was able to finish a bottle on his own on Friday. He can usually only get through half a bottle, and the rest they need to put through his nose tube. So he hit a milestone yesterday by doing it on his own. It won't happen every time, but it is showing that he is getting stronger!!

And then on top of that, we had our first sucessful nursing session last night. He actually latched on and fed for about 10 minutes. Pretty good for his 3rd try at it! The nurses are saying "he's growing up" which makes us pretty happy! His feedings are being increased daily and he is handling it all very well.

Thanks again for all the prayers. We are seeing it daily in Nate's progress!

Here's a few more pics.....

Nate with his "shades" under the lights

Faith singing songs to her very attentive brother

Proud big brother!

She's very in love with Nate...

Nate gets taken off the IV!!

Well Nate is doing just outstanding!

He had a really good night last night and was able to take in all of this feedings (some prior feedings were being skipped since he was digesting so slowly) His number 2's are coming at a regular pace now, more signs that his digestive system is working out the bumps. He was taken off his IV this morning. So now the only thing he has is his nose tube!

He is still under the lights for the jaundice. They are waiting to see the results of his blood work today, and if the numbers are good, he will be taken off. He is just right under where he needs to be, so he's close. If not today, they expect him off tomorrow. He hates the eye mask, so I know he will be happy to not have to wear that anymore!

How nice it is to see him with less and less stuff hooked up to him daily!! We had a great visit with him last night. He did really well with the bottle and he is getting a really strong suckle! He was very alert for our feeding (which was a first, he's usually so sleepy) and stayed awake for a while after the feeding and made very cute little faces at me. It's neat to see him react to all the songs we sing to him, and especially to the kids voices. He goes nuts when Faith sings, kicks like crazy!

So keep us in your prayers! Nate still has a ways to go, but we are very very excited about his progress so far!!

Pics of Nate

Here are some pics of baby Nate for you to enjoy!





Sam's first visit with his baby brother


Faith loves to sing to him. And he just loves it!

Sweet baby boy!

Nathaniel Liam Arrives!

January 23rd, 5am: I wake up and find that my water had broken. I wake up Jake to let him know "it's time!!" He, of course does not believe me. I'm only 34 weeks along....so he convinces me to call the nurses hotline, and am told to head straight to emergency.
So we pack up the kids and head to the hospital. I am sent to L&D and it is confirmed that my water had in fact broken. At first they were hoping I would not lose too much fluid, and that it could repair itself and I could keep baby in there to cook a little longer. We were told that in the next 48 hours I would either go into labor, or the leaking would stop and my body would start to repair...through the day I just kept losing more and more fluid, and the contractions were not coming on. Finally at around 3pm it was determined that I had lost way too much fluid and that labor would need to be induced to get the baby out. Now we were at the point where he was better off out then in.
Unfortunately it was a busy day at the hospital, and a couple of emergencies pushed my induction back. Finally at 9pm, the Oxytosen was started. Contractions started right away, but took a couple of hours to really get going. Because Nate was so small, they were just expecting me to all of a sudden progress, so an epidural was not an option....unfortunately......I was not happy!!!!!
Anyhow, I seemed to be stuck at 3cm dilated for what seemed forever, then all of a sudden things started happening! At around 5cm, I was given some drug that made me almost pass out between contractions and seemed to take a bit of the edge off the pain...it only lasted for 30 minutes though, and when I asked for another dose, I was at 8cm, so it was too late for any more meds....I was once again not happy....but the great thing was that I was only around 2 contractions away from fully dilated and able to push! After 5 minutes of pushing, Nate made his arrival.
Now because Nate was 6 weeks early, he had to pretty much be taken out of the room right away. But he was breathing on his own, and they did let me have a very quick snuggle with him before taking him to NICU. Jake went along with Nate and I was just happy it was over.
So our wonderful, oh so cute and perfect Nathaniel Liam Snowden was born on January 24th at 4:24 am. He weighed 4lbs, 14oz, and to be honest I have no idea what his length was...but I will find out and let you know!

It's now January 26th, and Nate is doing very well. He is under the hot lights for 2 days for a mild case of jaundice, and he is having a bit of trouble getting his "number 2's" out. But he did get one out today, so he is making progress. I have been going in twice a day to give him bottles (his feedings are half through a tube, half bottle) and he has been taking the bottle really well.
They are hoping to increase his feedings, but he needs to get pooping more and digesting better before they can do that.

I will put some pics up soon! Thanks for all your prayers! Keep praying for our little Nate, that he just keeps making great progress, and that he will be home with us soon! Love you all!