Gideon began life in the NICU on Friday the 26th. He was a little lazy with his breathing and started out on a CPAP machine to help remind him to take good deep breaths. He has since graduated to nasal cannulas and is slowly being weaned off of those. He’s doing very well. His heart rate still dips now and then when he forgets to take those big breaths but he’s getting better every day.

He also had to have an IV from the beginning because they weren’t feeding him right away. Gideon has HORRIBLE veins and every IV the nurses tried to start blew a vein. They got it to stay in his scalp for a while, just long enough to begin feedings. I’m not sure why he’s being so difficult!

He has been getting his formula through a feeding tube for the last few days. They’re working him up to taking 60 ml (2 ounces) at each feeding. He is fed every 3 hours. Yesterday, his blood tests showed that his calcium levels were very low and his phosphorus levels were very high. They gave him calcium through a very tentative scalp IV and got the levels corrected. They went up again last night and the doctor made the decision to switch his formula. He called me and asked if I could bring breastmilk instead. It’s the best solution to this problem. My milk had come in yesterday and I was set to pick up a pump today. I went to the NICU instead and pumped there. I overflowed the collection bottles and had to switch mid pump! Praise the Lord, my supply is good! I had a really hard time pumping for Sophie. The occupational therapist came down and gave him his first bottle today. She wanted to evaluate where we were starting. Gideon took 7 ml out of a 50 ml feeding. She is very optimistic about the bottle feeding.

The reason he took so little right now is because he’s jaundiced. It’s making him very lethargic and he tired out very quickly with the bottle. He’s under the tanning bed now and is making a decent amount of dirty diapers. This should bring his levels down fast.

Basically, we’re looking at a domino effect. My breastmilk will level out his calcium and phosphorus. He will digest it easier which will produce better diaper output. This will bring the bili levels down and take away the jaundice. He’ll have more energy and start eating from the bottles. Then we get to bring our beautiful baby home.

Now it’s just time to pray.