Our Little Rangers

My husband amazes me at times. When he heard that Ryan would need several blood transfusions he asked the nurse if he could donate his blood. Turns out that they can have family as direct donors for blood. Dean completed the paperwork yesterday and went for his appointment today to give blood. They will still have to test his blood for a couple of antibodies to make sure that he can give to an infant but as long as his blood checks out he will be able to provide Ryan with blood.  If not he will be able to help someone else in need of blood.

We had some very special visitors come to see us this morning while daddy was giving blood. Papa and Grandma Greer came for a visit. I had to tease them because they both came wearing pink! It looked like they were coming to see a granddaughter instead of a grandson!

I was able to give Ryan his first swabs from Mommy and Daddy today. He loved them! He had his little tongue moving the whole time. He tries so hard to suck on the q-tip.

After his swabs came the best moment of the day (for me that is). I was able to hold his little hand for the first time. We learned the difference in “tickle” and “soft” touch. Tickle touch is anything that may make a tickle which causes the little ones to jerk. They prefer soft touch (touch that involves you placing you finger/hand in theirs).

Today we were given instructions on pumping from our nurse. I’m sure the first pump we looked silly trying to figure everything out. I take a good bit of sinus/allergy medications so I’m trying to take an open mind with pumping and if it works great if it doesn’t then we will not stress over it. When I finished my first pump you would have thought we won the lottery! There were FOUR drops of colostrum!! We felt like we hit “Liquid Gold.”  The drops were small but just big enough to soak into a q-tip. The nurse swabbed the inside of Ryan’s mouth and he was in heaven! He had his little tongue moving and tried to take the q-tip away from the nurse!  We met C RN today. She is our lactation consultant and helped us through the pumping process greatly!