August 18, 2010 - Kangaroo Care

Kangaroo with Daddy

"Check out these hands!"

A sleepy smile




Naptime for Mommy and Graeme

As of 5:00pm this evening, Graeme has gone 36 hours without pain medicine and appears quite comfortable and easily consoled. We have struggled with convincing the nursing staff not to medicate Graeme every time he cries. This is a critical issue given the fact that Graeme's doctor believes he has developed an ileus. He believes this may be the cause of the large amount of secretions they are still draining from Graeme's NG tube. The cause of this ileus was likely the large amount of sedation Graeme was on post-surgery and the additional pain medication he was requiring in the week post-surgery.

Today, both Mommy and Daddy were able to spend some wonderful, quality time holding Graeme. Given the fact that he is a full-term baby who has been forced to spend the first several weeks of his life in the sterile environment of a NICU bassinet, he very appropriately just longs to be held, swaddled, snuggled and cuddled. His face even lights up when we just sit with him and talk to him. Graeme's favorite part of the day seem to be "Kangaroo Care'. This is technique used with babies in the hospital where you hold them close to your body with your skin in contact with their skin. It is a wonderful way for babies like Graeme to bond and feel comforted.


Mommy is very grateful that Graeme's nurses have been much more willing to let her hold Graeme for the entire length of her visits. This is much improved over the status last week when we could not hold him at all.


We are praying and ask for your prayers that the secretions from Graeme's NG tube would stop and his ileus would heal. We are also praying that the flouroscopy study next Monday will allow Graeme to start feeding and that once he begins feeding he will take the milk easily and without complications, such as reflux.