NICU Update: Result of Room-In

Good Evening,

Here it is, Saturday Evening. Both Cameron and Zoey roomed with Penny and I in a Post-Partum Room at North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio last evening and all of today.

The goal was to remove them from their monitors and allow us to take over the role of being primary caregiver to both of them. At the beginning of the evening, the only wire or tube still remaining was Zoey's feeding tube.

Although Zoey was probably a step or 2 behind Cameron in terms of readiness, the NeoNatologist decided to go ahead and let her room-in as well since Cameron was already doing it. She had struggled on Friday evening with her 6 o'clock feeding, but we made the decision not to use the tube but to see how the evening progressed.

Zoey and Cameron both rocked last night with their feeding! They both took more than the required amounts for both (47 ml) at this point. Zoey is on straight breast milk, but Cameron is able to handle 1/2 of formula and 1/2 of breast milk. Zoey did so well that her nurse decided, with our blessing, to remove the tube entirely last evening around 1130pm. I am happy to say that she did awesome again today taking all of her feedings via the bottle.

It was interesting to finally see our babies at night time. Zoey clinged to her brother and only felt comfortable sleeping next to him in the crib. Unfortunately, he was too happy to be with mommy and wanted to sleep next to her (and I think Zoey's kicking and prodding him didn't help either).

Because of the 6pm Friday incident, the staff at the NICU determined that we needed one more 24 hour window to claim success and consider a full discharge for both Zoey and Cameron. Rather than kick Cameron out now, they have decided to keep both for another night. So, Penny and I will spend this evening again at the hospital.

Wish us luck and I hope to be updating our Blog tomorrow with word of our release and first introduction into the heat and humidity of San Antonio, TX! Of course, I can't wait to send you all pictures of little Ms. Zoey without her tube. What a doll!

All our best!

Love,

Matt, Penny, Ethan, Cameron and Zoey