Our time in the NICU

I will try to zoom through the next few weeks just so I can catch up with what is happening now.
Luke was intibated ( had a breathing tube down his throat) for about a week. After some blood tests it was apparent that he was fighting an infection, most likely pneumonia, and was given seven days of antibiotics. While he was intibated, he was heavily drugged so he would not be uncomfortable or pull at the tube and was almost completely unresponsive. We were told that it is better and less overwhelming for preemies to just feel pressure instead of stroking them so Christopher and I spent a lot of time sitting next to Luke's bed with our hand gently on his head or chest. He did like to hold your finger, and for me this was the best way to bond with him.
On Saturday the 18th, Luke seemed to be doing better and his oxygen sats were stable enough that they felt they could remove the breathing tube and place him on CPAP again. This was great because this was happening the day I was to be released from the hospital and I knew it was going to be a very hard day. Unfortunately, he did not respond very well and had to be re-intibated.
Apparently, it took almost twice the pain drugs to make Luke cooperate with them putting the tube back in. He was throwing his arms, legs, and head around and he was even flipping off the doctors and nurses. They were able to take a pretty funny picture of this and I will have to figure out how to scan it and load it on here. It was a huge set back to have to be back on the machine but it was nice to see his fighting spirit.
So then I was released from the hospital and had to really leave him for the first time. I had always said that if I had a kid in the hospital, they would not be able to get rid of me, but with three kids at home I knew that I had to be home and try to help them with all the changes and emotions.
We spent the next few week taking turns at the hospital. I would get the kids ready in the morning, take them to class, wake up Christopher and head up to the hospital. In the evening, I could come home for dinner and then Christopher would take his turn after the kids all went to bed. He would sit next to Luke, his "Little Chief", and talk or do crossword puzzles until 1 am or so. Then he would come home and we would start it all over again.
After the sixth day in the hospital, Luke finally starting improving. The large mucus plug that had clogged a large part of one of his lungs was finally starting to break up and he was finally able to keep his numbers stable. They took him off of the blood pressure medication which meant that they could take the lines going through his umbilical cord off, which was very good because they were causing him to loose circulation in his toes and they had been turning a grey/ brown color.
One of the nurses went out of her way to arrange for me to hold Luke for the first time. It was really difficult because of all the tubes but completely worth it to finally have him in my arms.
After seven full days of the antibiotic, the infection seemed to be gone and he was able to just have room air through his tube. They decided he was stable and strong enough to take him off of the vent and he was put just on low flow oxygen tubes through his nose. He also started showing signs of being ready to nurse his feedings. We would try feeding him through a bottle or nursing and what he did not get there was given to him through his feeding tube. Then they were able to take him off the oxygen completely and we were just trying to get him strong enough to be able to receive all of his feeding through bottle or nursing.
Christopher went back to work on the 25th and my wonderful Aunt Jenni came up from Albuquerque to stay with us and help out. I really do not know what we would have done without her. I still stayed at the hospital almost all day so I could continue nursing Luke and Aunt Jenni stayed with the kids at home. Being away from the other kids all day was hard but I knew that not only did Aunt Jenni have everything covered, but they were having fun too. She helped me finalize all the touches on the kids Halloween costumes, pick up Shaylee from school and make sure that their routine was as normal as possible.
Luke was continuing to do better with his feeding and Christopher and I tried to be at every feeding that was given by bottle or nursing and I soon noticed that he was do much better if it was us doing the feeding, so I decided to stay at the hospital during the night as well to see if we could get him off the feeding tube. I stayed Saturday night and Sunday night and he was doing much better. We would weigh him before and after each nursing to see how much he took and how close we were to our goal of 53 mL. He once nursed 70! The other kids stayed the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and I knew we were getting closer to bringing Luke home.
Everyday the doctor and nurses would say, "just a few more days" and it seemed like those days just kept stretching longer and longer.
Finally on Monday Luke started putting on weight and was consistently nibbling all of his feeding so they were able to remove the feeding tube completely and plan for a Tuesday homecoming.