Tag Archives: bath

the eric update – day 42: two birthdays!

day 42: another bath

it’s eric’s and and kris’ birthday today! we all know eric turned 6 weeks old today, but i’ll leave it up to kris to decide whether or not to reveal her age. grandma and grandpa snowdeal came into town just to take us out to lunch; and we celebrated a quiet birthday in the evening with some of her family. it’s hard to put much mental energy into really celebrating outside the nicu, but that didn’t stop me from eating more than my fair shair of cake.

the nurses all knew it was kris’ birthday and decided to give her an extra special present by letting her wash him. as you can imagine, it’s a little difficult to give him a good scrubbing while trying to not extubate him, but kris did a great job.

day 42: pudge

eric is continuing to really pack on the weight. he weighed in at 1240 grams or just under 2 pounds 12 ounces. he looks a little puffy from water retension related to the intravenous drip, but i think a lot of his recent gains are real thing. amazingly, he just needs to gain 2 more ounces to have doubled his birth weight! over the past few days, nurses that haven’t seen him for a few days have been commenting how much different he’s been looking as he fills out and today was the first day that i really could see what they were talking about. ( as i’m writing this, a nurse walks by and exclaims, “ohmygosh! he’s big! oh my!” i swear that she doesn’t know what i’m writing at the same moment ).

day 42: head of hair

during his bath, kris cleaned his hair and we both noticed that it was long enough to get “mussed” up and it stayed that way, as if it might be wavy. so august 15, 2004 was the first day and probably not the last day, if he’s anything like his pops, that eric’s hair was messy.

day 42: being held my mama

kris was also able to sneak in another brief bit of holding by picking him up while the nurse changed his bedding around. after a week of no holding or kangaroo care, these brief interactions which were made possible by an incredibly thoughtful nurse, made kris’ birthday quite special. all the nurses are great, but some of them are much more attentive and thoughtful and have not forgotten that any contact, however brief, is magical.

day 42: post bath nap

day 42: hand on chest

random observation, his fingers are getting bigger.

the eric update – day 30: first bath from mama!

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. I.

when you’re in the nicu for you spend a lot of time wondering when you’ll get the chance to do the simple things that other parents take for granted. for 30 days we’ve pondered, contemplated and bet when eric would be stable enough for a bath from mama.

and woohoooo! late in the night we were pleasantly surprised to find that we could give eric his first bath! i think both of us felt a mix of complete elation along with a good dose of pensiveness that he might stop breathing or his heart rate would dip.

he’s been getting “spit baths” all along, but surely none of them were as fun as the one he got from mama. most of the hands you see belong to kris, but every so often nurse sue lends a helping hand. i, of course, am darting in and out, trying to capture the entire thing.

micropreems don’t usually like baths very much; from their perspective it’s just something that makes them very cold and all the touching can lead to overstimulation tantrums. but i guess eric isn’t like most micropreems, since he was quite content through most of the process

first things first – you must start by wiping the crud from his eyes.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. II.

and a little more scrubbing. nurse sue is holding his head and kris provides the other two hands.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. III.

more scrubbing.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. IV.

the ears must be cleaned.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. V.

scrubbing bubbles. kris applies soap to his very sensitive skin.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. VI.

help!! eric is pleading for me to intervene.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. VII.

kris is picking eric up in an attempt to get his head closer to the water.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. VIII.

kris is gently applying some water to eric IV’s head right before she adds some shampoo.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. IX.

you can’t have a bath without being dried off.

day 30: eric's first bath from mama. X.

i think that might be the beginnings of a smile.