12 Days in the NICU

This is what we see from the viewing deck (a bench a few feet across the room :)  He "lives" in his Giraffe OmniBed (isolette, incubator) most of the day.  They change him here, weigh him here, feed him, do spinal taps, and almost everything from this bed.  The top comes off for things like spinal taps.  The sides have hand holes where we (as parents) can reach in and touch him (with clean hands) any time we'd like.

These are the monitors we stare at all day long.  They tell us his heart rate (top), how many breaths he takes per minute (middle), and the bottom shows us how well he is using his oxygen.  That is the number we watch the most.  If it dips below 88 for 3 seconds or more, an alarm sounds.  If it continues dropping, the nurse will usually come in, tap his foot, make him mad, and basically remind him to breathe again. This often happens when he's in a deep sleep.  The great news is, in 12 days, these numbers have continually stabilized more and more with each day.  Yes, there are the ups and downs but overall, he continues to stabilize (based on these stats).

And this is his feeding station.  I should have taken a picture long ago because the number of apparatuses has decreased every few days.  He is on a continuous feed of breast milk with human milk fortifier in it as well as a fluid drip that contains a few nutrients.  Here they call it his "two thousand dollar gatorade." :)