Finally . . . we get to hold our baby!

Carter was in the NICU for nearly a week before we actually got to hold him. It was so hard to wait that long but of course we didn't want to risk his health. Initially, the doctors were worried that he had an infection in his lungs. It turns out that he didn't. His lungs were just premature. Once he received the second sufactant dose things started to make a turn for the better right away. It was such a joy to finally hold our baby in our arms. We take full advantage of the fact that we can do that as much as we want now. Carter was in the NICU for a total of 11 days, which felt like forever to us. After Carter's breathing was doing well we had to wait to make sure that he was eating OK. Since he had so much stress just trying to breathe, the doctors waited to feed him so that his system wouldn't get over stressed. Once he was getting food, it was through a feeding tube. Eventually, he started getting a bottle and then we started to mix in breastfeeding as well. At some feedings he was breast, bottle, and tube fed just to make sure that he was getting enough. Before we could take him home he had to be able to get enough to eat without the feeding tube. To make sure that he could eat enough without the tube Ryan and I actually stayed overnight with Carter in one of the rooms in the NICU. It is kind of like a test night before you get to take your baby home. You are completely on your own but Carter was still hooked up to all the monitors so that his oxygen levels and breathing rate could still be watched before he was officially released. The day after our test night, we got to take Carter home. We passed . . . Yeah!