Teagan Pictures

Tuckered out after being fed!
Teagan is comforted when holding on to Daddy's finger.

Teagan and Daddy

My mom, Grandma Chris, with Teagan. She was able to stop by the hospital to visit us during work. She would bring James lunch, since I was given lovely hospital food. Yum! (not so much...)

James and I love this picture. You really can see how small he is, his whole hand is holding onto his "binkie" (pacifier), and my hand is over him.

It is so hard to keep everyone updated. So I'll try my best.

Tonight is the 6th of December, we are exhausted. It has been non-stop since Monday the 1st. Teagan is continuing to do well. He is improving each day. In order for him to be able to be released he has to meet certain requirements: one- breathe on his own, which he always has been, he has never needed oxygen. Two-gain weight, or continue to improve, he is doing so. Three- maintain his own body temperature, he was taken off the temp regulator two days ago and seems to be doing so. Four- eat from the bottle and or breast, now with this one has been the trickier part for him. Because he is a preemie, their sucking and swallowing are a little slow, so he has to learn to suck, swallow, breathe, repeat. He has feeding tube now that goes in his nose into his stomach. The doctor sets a minimum on how much food he has to take in each time he feeds, and what he does not take in by bottle or breast he has to be given through his tube. Teagan and I are both learning about breast feeding, we are beginners here. It is hard to know how much he is getting, so he gets weighed before and after he breast feeds to see how much he has taken in. I have been pumping for the last few days and my milk has really come in last night and today, before that it was colostrum, it is very rich with lots of nutrients in it, yellow in color. Because I have to pump at leased 8 times a day for 15minutes, and I have to sleep for only a five hour period and set my alarm to pump in the middle of the night, there is plenty of it for him. I bring it to the hospital and they feed it to him during the night, and when we are there, which we have been now that I was discharged, we are at the hospital for 14 hour days, we feed it to him during the day. I pump during the day while he sleeps and also try to breast feed him when he is wake. It is hard because since he and I are new at the whole breast feeding we can't spend a lot of time at it because he will use up too much energy and expel calories, which we do not want to do. So we try for a while and then bottle feed him the rest hoping that he doesn't fall asleep from all the hard work. James (Daddy) has been great with him! He has been able to get Teagan to take the bottle better then I have. He falls asleep on me during feeding but James can keep him up, so he usually ends up feeding him.

It has been hard saying goodbye in the evening, knowing that you are leaving your baby at the hospital and that we are going home (to my mom's in Tigard) without him. It usually ends up in tears, mostly from me. It was hard to be discharged with flowers that say, Congratulations on a Baby Boy!" with no baby. People asked me while I was waiting for James to bring the car around, "where is your baby?" I would have to hold back tears and tell them he had to stay because he was early.

In all we are all doing fine. It has been nice to have great friends and family out there that love and support us, you mean the world to us. It has been nice to see familiar faces visiting us and being able to meet Teagan. Teagan is beautiful and we love him to pieces. We are looking forward to the day we bring him home. We hope you too will be able to meet him soon.