The Answers

Here is my best attempt to answer your questions.

1. What is your typical day like?
If the day went exactly how I were to plan it this is what is would look like
7:00 wake up and pump. Get Boston and I breakfast and ready for the day. Then we pack our bags and head out to do something fun. We usually end up going on a bike ride or eating at chick fila.
11:00 I drop Boston off at wherever he is going that day an head to the hospital and pump when I get there
4:00 pump one last time before leaving the hospital
4:30 pick Boston up and head out to do another activity. Our favorite is to get ice cream cones at braums.
5:00 pump and play around with Boston.
6-7:00 Trav gets home. We eat dinner and get Boston ready for bed.
8:00 Boston goes down I pump and we both head to the hospital if we have someone to stay with Boston. If we don't Trav usually stops by the hospital on the way home.
11:00 pump and go to bed.

Like I said this is what a perfect day would be like. Most don't go this smooth.

2. Who is able to visit Carter?
Anyone can visit as long as Trav or I are there. You have to be healthy of course and free of contagious symptoms for 24 hours. Because it is RSV season we have been told to keep our visitors to a minimum especially those that have little kids at home.

3. How long will Carter be in the NICU?
The golden question. We really have no idea. They try to aim for his original due date of March 25th, but it could be sooner it could be later it just depends on when he is healthy and ready.

4. How am I doing with this emotionally?
It totally depends on the day. Typically if Carter is having a good day so am I. Now that things are kinda stabilizing I feel more in control of my emotions. At the beginning I was a wreck. I still feel like I Am never in the right place. When I am with Boston I feel like I should be with Carter and when I am with Carter I feel like I should be with Boston. Boston is having a really hard time with all this and it really shows in his behavior. It absolutely breaks my heart for him. Trav and I rarely see each other and when we are together we are so burnt out we usually just pass out. We miss our old normal and are trying to get used to our new normal. So to sum it up I am doing ok mostly good, but definitely have my days.

5. What about my surgery?
Did I ever tell you how bitter I was about this whole thing? I felt as if our plate was full enough already and this was one more thing we couldn't handle. Now that I look back it was such a small moment and I feel so great now that I laugh when I think about how I wanted to just deal with the pain and skip the surgery. My ovaries look great and my appendix are great. The surgeon said that sometimes it will happen again 6-8 weeks down the road at which point they would just remove my appendix. I am not worried about that since I have been completely symptom free.

6. How long and often do I get to do skin to skin also called kangaroo care?
I get to do it once everyday if I am healthy and Carter is doing well. You are required to do it for a minimum of an hour, but up to three. I start at the beginning of a feed and hold him until it's time to eat again. Lately since he is eating so much more his belly gets really full and he gets uncomfortable because it puts pressure on his lungs so I usually hold him for two hours and put him back down so he has more room.

7. Will Carter be ok after all this?
Good question we have no idea and most things are too early to tell. Obviously he will be behind developmentally, but we will try to keep him on track according to his adjusted age. Meaning his actual age minus four months. So when he is five months old we want him to be able to do what a one month old does. Make sense? Most micro preemies have a slow start, but go on to be perfectly normal. Most babies born at his gestational age require oxygen when they go home. We are praying that is the only thing he comes home with. Also with all the oxygen he will most likely have to get glasses. They monitor his oxygen levels really well so most babies are great and have no vision problems. They just did laser surgery on a baby here and she has perfect vision now. It is so crazy all that they can do for these little guys.

8. Can you or do you want more kids?
Can I? Yes. Do I want more? Yes. Are we done? Yes. This whole thing has been so crazy and since we have no idea if it would happen again we are going to call it quits. We feel very blessed to have our two boys and unless we get someone screaming at us to have another we will be very happy with just the two of them.

9. How's your milk supply?
Great! I have been very blessed in the milk department. So blessed that I was kicked out of the NICU freezer and am about to kick myself out of my own freezer. We really need to get a freezer for our garage to store it, but are just having a hard time pulling the trigger.

10. How is your insurance?
We have great insurance and due strictly to Carters birth weight he automatically qualifies for medicaid. Medicaid started January 1st and we are so happy because we received our first bill in the mail the other day for almost a thousand dollars and that was for his chest x-rays only for ten days I cant even imagine how much all the other stuff is. Ouch! One thing for sure is that Travis and I don't make cheap kids. ;)

11. What is the thing that is holding Carter back the most?
Definitely his lungs. When Carter was about a week old they got my placenta report back and found inflamation. Carters doctor said that if it presents itself in Carter it would in his brain and/or lungs 4-6 weeks after birth. Right around four weeks we started seeing it show up in Carters lungs which caused him to have those rough couple weeks. He will get over this it will just take his lungs a little longer to mature and we are not sure if it will cause him any problems later. We feel very blessed that it is only showing up in his lungs and not his brain. The lungs are treatable the brain isn't.

12. What are the benefits of kangaroo care?
Obviously it is great for Mom and giving them the chance to feel their baby and make that connection. Mostly it is beneficial for the baby. When in the Mom they are able to regulate their temperature and when near the breast it actually helps the mothers body produce specific antibodies that the baby needs to fight any infection that they might be at risk for. Also preemie mothers milk is deferent from full term babies milk. It has more nutrients and doing kangaroo care helps the mothers supply.





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