He came early after all! On February 21st, at just 29 weeks plus 4 days gestation, Ray Ngaei McKinlay decided it was time to make his entrance. It's been a crazy emotional rollercoaster over the past month, but wee Ray has been a total trooper going from strength to strength. He's still in the hospital as he is too teeny and precious for us to bring home just yet. He started off in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with oxygen tubes and monitors and wires everywhere. Thankfully he's been breathing on his own from day one, but needed to have the oxygen tubes there just in case. These have now been removed, and he has been progressing down the hospital ward, and is now in the Special Care Nursery, where he'll stay for another 3 or 4 weeks until we can bring him home. We have been extremely lucky that he hasn't had any serious setbacks. Being at the hospital every day and seeing all the other families and tiny babies makes us realise how lucky we are. Although - I cannot wait to not be at the hospital all the time!
It's surprising how busy things have been, and Ray isn't even home yet. All Ray's grandparents have come over from New Zealand to see him which has been so lovely, and we have been scrambling to get things set up at home. Soooooo behind on all of this and our house is a shambles! And then we need to spend as much time as we can at the hospital. Some days I arrive and sit with Ray and wonder what I'll do with myself there all day. But the days always go by in a blur; there's nappy changes, and 'kangaroo care' which is when we can get Ray up for a few hours to sit and hold him, and my milk expressing schedule - which is so weird! Did you know that your breast milk will contain the perfect combination of nutrients for the time your baby is born? Premature babies need more proteins and things to help them grow and develop, and your breast milk changes as they do, so that it has everything they need for each stage - so weird and amazing! He's still too little to be able to swallow, suck and breathe, so actual breast feeding will start in a week or two once he gets the hang of all that. For now he has his 'feeding tube' which goes in his nose to his tummy. I can't wait for the day that is removed, as it is the last tube he has on his wee face, which can't be very nice for him.
Okay, enough breastmilk talk, I better get going to see our Tiny Dugong! It's such a relief to finally check back in with an update. I love blogging so much, so I need to make the effort to keep up with things around here. I don't think things will change too much, I'm not going to turn into a mummy-blogger, but there will likely be more Ray related posts than usual for a while!
