Levi-Day 7

I've struggled with where to start...do I go all the way back to day 1 and start from there? My fear is that if I do that, I'll never remember the details from today. So...hopefully Levi's first 6 days will be explained as we go along from here on out.

We've had two extremely good days in a row. Yesterday was Levi's first day to be weighed. Because he weighed less then 1500 grams at birth, they wait 5 days to weigh them. So last night before his 7 o'clock feeding I helped the nurse weigh my son for the first time. We weighed him 5 times because she just couldn't believe the amount of weight that he had gained! According to her calculating, Levi has gained 3 oz in 5 days! He is now 1590 grams and hopefully growing bigger and stronger each day. He also grew 3cm. Can you tell a difference between Day 1

and Day 6?


We are excited to weigh and measure him again tonight at 7 to see if he actually did gain that much weight and grow that tall...so stay tuned for that one.

The last three or four days Levi has struggled to keep his blood sugars up. He was getting a feeding every three hours (sometimes trying a bottle and other times through a feeding tube). This feeding lasted 30 minutes...but they think because he doesn't have enough fat on him he isn't able to retain the sugar levels for the next 2 1/2 hours until his next feeding. So...they have begun to feed him over the course of two hours through a feeding tube to see if his sugars will regulate. He started three days ago with 9 cc of milk...today he is getting 19.5 cc of milk and he seems so much happier.

Each day I try to arrive at the NICU around 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. Levi eats at 10 so I am able to take his temperature and change his diaper. When the nurse finishes her duties, she wraps him up and I get to hold him. The last couple of days I've just sat in the rocker telling him all sorts of things...and usually when I see his eyes start to droop I'll sing him to sleep. Today he stayed awake for 35 minutes just staring at me with those dark, beady eyes. We talked about the meaning of his name, the story of Jacob, football, Culley, Brian, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We've even had to have a few discussions regarding his behavior at night. He seems to have a reputation for a trouble-maker during the night hours! :) Feisty, they say.

Finally...I want to share one of the sweetest moments of the last 7 days. Levi was five days old when Culley finally got to meet him. She fell in love with him instantly!
In fact, last night when Brian asked her if she was ready to go see mommy, she shook her head yes, headed to the door and said, "Lebi" (aka. Levi). Even last night she would continually say Lebi and I'd have to show her a picture of him and she would just stare and smile. When she finally met him, she sat and took it all in...but for some reason I think once Levi gets a little older there may be trouble brewing when these two get together!