Everly’s 2nd Day of Life

With yesterday’s update done now I realized that I forgot something. It was my Birthday yesterday! I’m 28 years old and I forgot it was my birthday but I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it anyplace else. 

Evidently everyone else remembered it was my birthday because my phone has been just absolutely bursting with messages. Both happy birthdays and well wishes for Everly. I hope everyone knows that as busy as I am, I am absolutely thankful for every bit of love that everyone is showing us. I’m trying to get back to people but between answering my phone and my little hospitalized family I’ll choose to focus my attention on them and get back to my phone when there’s time for it. I hope you all know we are doing our best and that we love you and we know we wouldn’t have gotten this far in life without your love and support. 

Today is a new day and we are lucky to be living it. Katrina was up early this morning. At 4 AM She was told by staff that Everly was ready to be fed. Katrina asked me if I wanted to go up with her or stay back and sleep. I stayed back wondering if I made the right choice but before I could worry about it I had fallen back to sleep. 

Katrina came back from the NICU at 7 AM (ish) and I woke up. She shared good news that Everly had latched on for a moment and stayed latched long enough to find there was not much coming out. This was okay because it meant progress. It meant that Everly was hungry and eager to learn. When she realized she wasn’t getting much from Katrina’s breast Everly got a little fussy and Katrina switched to the bottle. 

Everly took to bottle feeding well and she drank about 15 mL of formula. This was also progress. Everly was awake most of the time and she was interested in feeding. This news came as a huge shock to me and was just a giant relief. 

We ordered breakfast and came up with a plan. Katrina fed Ev this morning while I slept so at the next feeding I would go up to the NICU and feed Everly while Katrina got a little more sleep. The next feeding was going to be at 9 AM so we ordered breakfast from the hospital and we started on the stack of paperwork we had acquired. 

Before we knew it, the time was 9 AM. I went up to the NICU as planned, I got situated with Ev, and I prepared to bottle feeding her. The nurse told me, in a firm but kind way, that Everly must eat at least 15 mL at each feeding or they would have to figure something out. 

Pretty quickly Everly confirmed everything that Katrina had told me. Her beautiful eyes were wide open, she was active, and when I introduced the bottle to her she started chugging like it was some kind of a keg stand. 

The nurse had turned away while I started to feed her and when she came back she asked if Everly had taken any breaks or burped. Quickly I pulled the bottle out of her mouth and set it down on the counter by our rocking chair. I tilted her upright supporting her little noggin and started patting her back. She burped. A lot.

The nurse and I were thrilled to see that she did not just spit it all out because when we looked back at the bottle sitting on the counter, we saw that baby Everly had taken in 30 mL in just that one chugging! Some more burping and then Everly went right to sleep. I am one proud dad. 

The NICU nurses did their rounds while I was still up there and told me that Everly could probably come home tomorrow and that we should try to convince the nurses on the maternity ward that we had to stay one ore night so we could take our baby home with us tomorrow. That was a hard sell for the nurses on the maternity ward. They usually wouldn’t mind us staying but there was an influx of patients and our room might be needed. As disappointing as it was to hear we were very understanding and we planned to pack up for our discharge. 

Now as I’m sitting here writing this, the time is 12:44 PM and you are all up to speed. Katrina is up with Everly and I am writing to all of you on the blog before I sign off and start to pack up our bags. When Katrina comes back from the NICU we plan to finish packing our belongings and complete our baby paperwork (birth certificate form, parental acknowledgment, postpartum depression survey, etc.).

Once all that is done we’ll take our bags down and pack the truck. Then we will come back up here to feed Everly in the NICU and spend a little bit of time with here before going home. We plan on coming back for Everly’s feeding in the evening and probably returning again throughout the night.

If Everly keeps up with the progress she’s making, we’ll be able to take her home from the hospital tomorrow. Please pray for us. We just want to bring our baby home! 

That’s all I have for now. I hope the outside world sees these posts and talks about them. I also hope the link is being shared so people know what is going on as this continues to be the best platform for us right now. Lastly I hope you all know how much I love you. We love you and we can’t wait to share more good news! 

The plan is that we want to get home and get settled in just a little bit before we take visitors. We want to keep the exposure to only a few people because it’s what’s best for her right now. Katrina’s background working here at the hospital and my background in EMS has demonstrated to us that we see enough sick babies brought back to the ER and then transported to the NICU at Upstate Hospital. If we can lessen this risk by limiting exposure to people that’s our call and that’s what we’ll do. Setting these boundaries now is the correct thing to do but I promise you that it will not be too long before Everly gets to meet everyone. It’s just going to take more time because we want to be careful and not destroy the progress that Everly will have worked so hard for in the NICU here. Thank you for respecting our wishes and understanding this is about making her stronger and healthier so she can take on the world of supporters that have followed us on this journey. 

We love you all so much,
-Jack, Katrina, and Everly 

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