Sammy Eating More On His Own

Sammy was 5 pounds and 6 ounces last night. He is now up to 5 out of 8 feeds doing bottle or breast. On some of the feeds if he hasn't gotten the whole amount, they supplement some through the tube.

Sammy gets some nice sleep.

Samson Grows

Samson weighs 4 pounds 5 ounces now. He has grown quite a bit the last few days. The picture was from Thursday night when he weighed just under 4 pounds. He was moved to a crib on Sunday and is wearing clothes now. He is fed mostly through the tube still, but just started
doing a bit of breastfeeding once a day.

We are beginning to get a little more cuddle time with Sammy. He is doing well still and even was able to shoot some poop onto Debbie's shirt tonight when she was changing his diaper. He is still only 33 weeks and has some occasions of bradycardia(slowing of heartbeat from not breathing) and drops in oxygen saturation, but these are to be expected at this stage.

The First Couple Weeks

Sammy did well the first couple weeks in the hospital. He would stay in his warm isolette(incubator) most of the time and sleep. Once per day, we would get to take him out and hold him a little. He is four days old in this picture on the right.

For the initial feeds, he drank the couple ml of milk on his own. Later when the amount of milk he needed to drink grew larger, it was gavaged through a feeding tube inserted into his nose. He never really got too close to liking that tube. On a few occasions when he was feeling a little fed up, he grabbed onto it and yanked it out.

In addition to the feeding tube, he also was equipped with a pulse oximeter(on his foot or hand) to measure heartbeat and blood oxygen saturation, and leads on his chest and stomach to detect respiratory and heartbeat. He no longer needed to have an IV at this point.


Sometime along here he started to wear clothing. He went through the outfits pretty fast, especially if a new nurse was around and the nurse was gung-ho about changing the diaper (usually Debbie and I would change Sammy's diapers). Well, Sammy is like grown-ups in his potty habits, where he likes to be free of all obstacles including diapers before he lets it go. It was fun to watch if you weren't in the danger zone. I'll just show a picture of a dressed Sammy, resting after the action.

Samson Is Born

Craig and Debbie welcome their new baby boy on October 30th at 10:42 AM. Our 'still to be named' bundle of joy was 3 pounds 12 ounces, 15.75 inches. Debbie was on bedrest for over 10 weeks, which allowed us to reach a gestation of 30 weeks and 5 days. We were in the hospital for a few days prior to the birth as well, giving us the opportunity to give him steroids for developing his lungs.

He was able to breathe room air from this first day forward, not requiring a respirator. Dad spent most of the day with son, as he got acquainted with being in an isolette.

On the first night, Debbie was able to see him for the first time since the birth. Despite the puking episode from Mom, the meeting went well. He didn't mind cameras, although he would prefer if we turned off the flash.

On the second day, we decide on the name Samson Douglas Connell.