Premature Delivery

I had Ignatius five weeks early. Doctors couldn't tell me why I had a premature baby. In fact, many factors could have occurred. Unfortunately, having a 35 week baby is dangerous for many reasons. What I will tell you is that if you have an early baby, make sure the hospital staff is on top of his or her needs.
When I had my baby, he had apnea, which means he would stop breathing for a specific amount of time. Basically his lungs and brain weren't coordinated in breathing just yet. His brain would catch up when he aged, so it was a waiting game in the hospital.
Ignatius had a heart, lung, and SAT monitor that basically told us that he was breathing and that his vitals were not too low. If his lung alarm went off, he was having an apnea spell. If his heart monitor went off, it was most likely bradycardia. Brady, as the doctors call it, is a slow heart rate. When sleeping, eating, or sometimes even pooping, the heart rate can slow, but it shouldn't stay down. In Ignatius' case, his would stay low for a while.
On day nine of our hospital stay, I complained to the head woman in charge of the floor. The reason being I had seven pediatricians and over 14 nurses telling me what they considered a true DSAT or a true apnea spell. Basically I had way too many cooks in the kitchen, all with their own opinion on what was wrong with my baby. I even had some pediatricians telling me I'd go home in a day, and some said I had to wait 72 hours. I felt like my baby's health was in danger since no one really had a plan.
 I had had enough when a night nurse took down every time my baby's machine had an alarm. The problem with the machine is that it faults on the side of too cautious. It would go off if Ignatius kicked his foot, wiggled funny, or if the wire was just kinked. If he had laid perfectly still the whole time, it would be easy to monitor his condition. This nurse, however, decided that all of these false alarms were necessary to write down. Then she brought my baby back with a binker in his mouth without asking me first. I'm not one of those women that really cares whether her baby has a binker or a bottle, etc. so long as I get asked first.
The following morning, the doctor said I would have to stay an extra night because this night nurse screwed up. Needless to say, I was pissed off. Then, the doctor told me that my baby had a heart murmur and that we needed to do an ultrasound to make sure. Again, this is day nine of my hospital stay. Seven doctors had already seen my baby at this point, and not one determined that he had a heart murmur. It was a night nurse that decided he had one. A pediatrician had seen him that morning, and didn't find anything. Suddenly my son had one? I don't think so. This is when I called the lady in charge of the floor.
I had a list written down of what pissed me off, and she listened. At the end, I gave her my list, and she did quick work to fix each problem. In the end, I had to stay 13 days in the hospital because Eugene's NICU decided that five days without alarm is the safest. I also learned that my baby didn't have a murmur. They only heard it for two days, but then they determined it healed itself. Maybe, but maybe he didn't really have one in the first place.
If you have your baby early at Albany's hospital, make sure you know how many days you'll be staying after the last alarm went off. They normally don't keep premature babies, so I'm assuming they aren't used to having one when they do. Take a proactive approach to your baby's health, understanding what is wrong and what to look for. Also, get a criteria list of what is considered true apnea, true DSATs, true Bradycardia, and be sure that all other medical staff knows this, too. Not all nurses working on the maternity floor are actual maternity nurses.
 Also, if you notice that something is really not right with your baby's breathing, send him to the nursery with your concerns. They let Ignatius sleep in my room for the night, and it wasn't until the next day that I realized something was very wrong with him. His color went to ash grey, and he would stop breathing. I had no idea what was happening, and when I explained it to one nurse, she didn't seemed concerned. Be sure to express your concern, and ask them to monitor your baby until they are sure it is nothing. It took me getting really persistent before they realized that he needed monitoring.
While hospitals try their best to help you, sometimes you need to take your child's medical needs into your own hands. There is nothing wrong with questioning doctors. After my complaint, I had the best service. I had almost every one of the nurses come in and tell me that they know what to look for and that they talked to the doctor so that we were all on the same page.

Ignatius with his monitors.

Also, if you are having your son circumcised, ask the nurses which doctor is the best. I watched a doctor panic on a circumcision after he already gave the baby a shot in his penis. This poor baby was sent back to his parents because the doctor thought his penis was too small and swollen to complete the circumcision that day. The poor baby had to be shot again the next day by a different pediatrician. The nurses know which doctor does a good job, and which is sub-par.

Solid Baby Food

I started feeding my baby solid food at four months. We started Xavier on carrots, mostly because I was told that it was difficult to get babies to like vegetables. We didn't wait one week, as suggested. I decided that since both his father and I were not allergic to anything, it meant that he had a greater chance of having the same make-up. 

After we began him on carrots, we would give him the baby rice or the baby oatmeal in the morning as a kind of breakfast. I would mix it with his formula, along with water, and he would eat it. He hated it, but it did seem to keep him fuller than when he had just formula or breast milk. Xavier is such a strong eater now that I feel like this introduction to solid foods was the best method for us. Obviously this isn't a formula for everyone, and many mothers would shiver at the thought of giving a four month old formula. 

Once we began Xavier on formula, we would give him an eight ounce bottle at night, and that seemed to do the trick for getting him to sleep through the night. His pre-bottle schedule consisted of a midnight, three, and six a.m. feeding. When we had finally gave him the 8 ounces, he would sleep from 11-6, which wasn't great, but we did get more sleep. Obviously this wasn't always true. There were nights when he would wake up, but for the most part, we got more sleep. 

Once we started with our baby food, I began to wonder how often I should give him those cute packets. I thought that just one in the morning and one at night was good. When I took Xavier in for his nine month check-up, the doctor told me I should have been feeding him more than that. 

My cousin, a pediatrician, told me that each of these little packets only has about 80 calories, so a baby doesn't get a lot of sustenance from them.  Between these two professionals, I found that you should give these packets along with formula/milk, but that these packets do not replace a meal. Begin by feeding the solid food, but once the baby loses interest, begin feeding them milk until they are full.