Updates on Nolan

Today Nolan is one week old! It’s an amazing milestone. It’s hard to believe that he’s already a week old; at the same time, it’s hard to believe that only a week has passed. For family members, all of our lives are so very different today than they were a week ago. Emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially… it’s amazing how much you can change in just one week. Our days have a radically different tempo to them. People have appeared out of the woodwork to offer love and support. It’s been quite a journey for the extended family, and that only begins to touch what it has been for Kara and Ronan.

In celebration of the first week of Nolan’s life, I’ve pulled together a photo gallery. Not only can you look at all the pictures of Nolan’s life, but you can send pictures directly to Shutterfly for online printing, or download pictures to your computer. You can always get to it from the “photo album” link in the menu to the left. You can also get to it by clicking on any of the thumbnail pictures in the posts here. I’ll post a few of my favorites tonight.

Here’s Nolan’s uncle Shannon, sharing an anti-jaundice light bath with Nolan. The fabulous drawing was given to Nolan by his cousin Logan, and hangs at the foot of his bed. (To me, the drawing says “Small? I’m not small! You’re just big!”) Sadly, Shannon had to return to Utah today. We’ll miss him a lot and hope that he and his wife Amy will be able to visit again soon.

I love this picture of Nolan holding a finger (mom’s? dad’s? I’m not sure.) He’s on his glowing anti-jaundice blanket which makes him super-stylin’. That thing on his head is the mask they use to cover his eyes from the blue overhead light. Mostly, I just love how beautiful he looks holding his parent’s finger. “Small? I’m not small, I’m just reminding you how amazing life is.”

Happy first week, Nolan! Yours is the happiest 1-week celebration I can imagine being a part of!

love,
aunt maymay

I wanted to share a little bit more about kangaroo care for those who don’t know anything about it. It’s pretty neat stuff!

Kangaroo care involves placing the baby in skin-to-skin contact with the parent (most research has been done on kangaroo care with mom, but dads can do it, too). Baby wears only a diaper and maybe a hat, and is placed on his stomach on mom’s stomach, with his head sideways between her breasts so he can hear her heartbeat. They then get wrapped together to keep baby’s outside warm.

Kangaroo care “originated” (I know, it’s more like “back to what we used to do”) in Bogota, Columbia in 1983 when some doctors tried it because they simply didn’t have enough equipment, beds, whatever, to keep babies warm. They had moms hold babies in kangaroo position pretty much non-stop as a kind of emergency measure, and discovered that infant mortality dropped very significantly and the babies were able to go home dramatically faster! It has since been adopted by many NICUs in the US and elsewhere, and studies have been done that mostly support these amazing results.

In some ways, it seems self-evident that having mom and baby together would be good for baby, but the cool thing is the specifics of why it’s good, and how that goes against some basic preemie care rules (like, reducing movement and transfers of baby as much as possible because those cause baby to work much harder to stay stable). Here are some of the things that happen with kangaroo care:

• temperature synchrony: mom and baby regulate each other’s temperature. When baby gets cold, mom’s chest temperature goes up to compensate. Apparently it works in reverse, too, though I imagine mom can do a pretty good job of regulating her own temperature.
• improved breastfeeding: the close contact increases mom’s milk letdown and babies are much more likely to begin breastfeeding spontaneously.
• respiration and heart rate improvements: doctors, nurses and parents have noticed decreased apnea episodes, decrease in ventilator oxygen requirements, decrease in brachycardia episodes, and a more stable heart rate.
• more restful sleep: we can all relate to the importance of that one!
• more rapid weight gain: possibly because of the more restful sleep, which allows conservation of calories
• faster discharge: many babies are discharged significantly faster
• parents benefit, too: the NICU can feel like a very powerless place for many parents, and kangaroo care allows parents to take a very important role in the care of their baby. Plus, obviously, you get to hold your baby!

Just so you know, I’ve gotten most of this information off the internet. It’s probably not all exactly right, but I think it’s not too far off, either. Here are some sites that talk about it if you want to read more:

• Wikipedia
• Midwifery Today
• Prematurity.org

Pretty nifty, huh?

-Maria

Here’s a picture of Kara holding Nolan!

The NICU has very strict rules about visiting, so not many of you will have the opportunity to see in person how beautiful this little one is in the next few months. Here is a picture to give you an idea.