Today Nico is one week old and I got to hold him in my arms for the first time. He felt so small, soft and warm. I cannot wait to do it again! He is off his nasal cannula and breathing completely on his own since 9a.m. Tomorrow they are planning on increasing his breast milk feedings to double the volume they have been the past few days. Soon he may be ready to get his first bottle, but for now he is fed thru the tube that is taped to his cheek that goes up his nose, as well as nutrition called TPN and lipids that are given thru the IV in his umbilical stump. He has a pacifier and is learning to suck on it. I like to help him so he will develop good nursing abilities. Right before I left the hospital Nico was more awake and gave me a couple of sweet smiles with his eyes open. He made my heart melt!!!
The results of the tests of my placenta came back and showed a lot of clots on his side of the placenta, none on mine. They have begun a battery of tests to figure out what of many possibilities caused this and is continuing to cause his platelets to disappear. He will probably get platelets again tomorrow. At 3pm they took him for an abdominal ultrasound and to my delight I got to go with him and hold his hands while they did it. The ultrasound technician worked for about 45 minutes and then went to check with the radiologist to make sure they had enough pictures. She had seen spots in his stomach that were curious, so she returned with the radiologist to double-check. The nurse with us from the NICU told them that he hadn't eaten since noon but he was being given lipids through his IV (fats for nutrition). This is what turns out to be the spots she was seeing. So since the radiologist came into the room with us (which doesn't normally happen) I did not have to wait for her to put the formal report in the computer. She told us the arteries in his abdomen look completely normal and his liver, kidneys, gallbladder, pancreas and stomach showed no clots. Good news!