Author's Note: Only spent three days in Florida, and they were all busy as could be, so I never got anything done on this story. However, I had all week off from work so I finally got thirty five and thirty six ready to go. And if you thought the drama surrounding Kaleb's birth was bad, you may wanna buckle your seat belts; chapter thirty six ramps up the drama just a bit. No, there's no infidelity; no violence; nothing of that nature. I went a different route with this. I've kind of dropped subtle hints on this throughout the story, so some of you may have picked up on it. But if you haven't picked up on anything, don't feel bad, it was nothing that necessarily should've stood out; that's why they were subtle. ;)

This chapter is mainly a "filler" chapter. I had to move it along a little bit, and I never intended on spending as much time as I have on the hospital stay anyway, so between this chapter and the beginning of the next one Kaleb's hospital stay will come to an end. So there's the good news. :)

Alright, now, onto chapter thirty five! Enjoy.

Chapter Thirty Five

It had been a week since Kaleb's birth, and he had continued to improve every day. The nurses and doctors were very pleased with his improvements. The only sign he had that proved he was premature, aside from his premature respiratory system, was the jaundice he ended up contracting. But his nurses as well as his doctor were quick to inform Chasity and Jon that jaundice just meant he had a yellow tint to his skin that was caused because of his liver not being fully mature. It was a normal, fairly routine, occurrence in premature babies, and even quite a few full term babies wound up contracting the condition shortly after birth. It was easily treatable with the help of bili lights; which was a blue light they would place Kaleb under in only a diaper with a little patch over his face that would cover both of his eyes during the entire bili light session.

On the bright side, unlike some of the other preemies, and even some full term babies, that were being treated for this same condition twenty four-seven, Kaleb was only under the bili lights for treatment for about six hours each day; three in the morning after he woke up, and three more hours right before they would put him to bed at night because his condition was very mild. To the point where unless you looked closely at his skin and really studied it, you couldn't even see the yellow tint they were treating. It was tough for Chasity and Jon to see him while he was under the bili lights in nothing but a diaper with his little eyes covered, but if this happened to be his biggest challenge the entire time he was here, they would gladly take it.

Despite her nervousness, the visit with Joe, Galina, Joelle, Colby and Leighla a week ago had gone quite well. Joe and Galina explained to JoJo that she couldn't touch Kaleb and despite her young age she understood how serious the situation was and why it could be bad if she touched him, despite having washed her hands. She was very bright for her young age; and Chasity had made sure to tell her and her parents that as she was thanking them for their understanding.

Cara had stayed near their vicinity the entire visit, as had been the arrangement from the start. To say Chasity wasn't nervous the entire time would be a lie, but after it was all said and done she realized how silly she had been. Jon had been right. None of the adults wanted to touch Kaleb either. They had really only come to see him and show their support for Chasity and Jon. They all knew they'd have their time to touch and actually hold him once he was completely healthy and finally home.

Despite his jaundice condition, on day five Chasity and Jon finally got a chance to hold him for the first time after his first bili light treatment of the day because his oxygen intake had been reduced to twenty percent and the cardiac-respiratory monitor had also been removed. The oxygen reduction basically meant he was breathing completely on his own, for the most part; the oxygen was only helping him when he absolutely needed it. As for the cardiac-respiratory monitor; that was removed because he had no issues with his heart, and he wasn't intubated, so there was no need for the extra monitoring on his breathing.

By day six the nurses had started trying to feed him via a bottle because Chasity decided it would be too difficult to try to nurse him. She had been released from the hospital three days ago and was now commuting from home every day to see him, and if she was nursing him, that meant he'd only be able to nurse via breast from eight AM to eight PM when visiting hours ended; the other twelve hours she would have to pump about three bottles worth of breast milk for him to be fed by bottle while she couldn't be there. She didn't like that idea for two reasons: one: she wasn't sure she could produce enough milk to pump three bottles worth; two: she was afraid Kaleb would get confused between the breast nipple and the bottle nipple; which was common in infants; especially premature infants, and it was fixable, but it would slow down all the progress he had made and very well could push back his release date. That was the last thing Chasity or Jon wanted.

At the first feeding, Kaleb wound up taking half an ounce by bottle before the other two in a half ounces had to be finished via his feeding tube. He struggled with the whole suck, swallow, and breathe method full term babies got the chance to practice while in utero, and as a result, were born with. He didn't realize you had to swallow before breathing and it caused him to choke more often than the nurses would have liked, so they opted not to stress him out with the process anymore on this feeding and used his feeding tube to finish his feeding.

Today was day two of bottle feeding; exactly a week since his birth, and it was slowly starting to come along. At his first two feedings of the day he managed to take a full ounce before he would choke a little because he'd forget to swallow before trying to breathe, but they would remove the bottle, sit him up, pat his back until he stopped coughing, and then try again. He still had the feeding tube in place just in case he got too frustrated with the process, but the goal was to get him to drink all the formula from the bottle and not use the tube at all. So far his frustration level was low, so the nurse on-duty allowed the feeding to continue. All of the nurses that had cared for Kaleb so far during this process had assured them he would eventually get the hang of it, but it would take a lot of time, practice and patience before he was feeding from a bottle without any problems.

In another sign of improvement, Kaleb's temperature probe that had initially been placed on the left side of his little tummy right after birth to make sure he was maintaining his temperature, had also been removed on day three. And yesterday; day five, Kaleb had been moved into an open isolette because, despite his prematurity, he wasn't having any issues maintaining his own temperature like most preemies usually do. However, during each of his bili light treatments, they would place him back in the enclosed isolette to make sure he got all the treatment and not just part of it.

In addition to the cardiac-respiratory monitor and temperature probe removals, and being moved to an open isolette part-time, the blood pressure cuff that had been around his little leg, directly above his ankle, had also been removed around the same time as the temperature probe. That meant the only thing he was really still attached to was the oxygen and the pulse reader attached to his little finger. Jon and Chasity were happy to see less wires attached to their son, and being able to touch him without reaching through holes and having to avoid wires was also a plus.

It had only been a week since his premature birth, but in addition to all the wire removals, the doctors had also given Chasity and Jon a tentative date for his release. If he continued to progress as well as he currently was, his primary doctor, Doctor James, said he saw no reason why Kaleb wouldn't be able to go home the day he turned one month old. So that was the goal they were currently aiming for. Which meant if everything went according to plan, Kaleb would be arriving home on February 5, 2014.

"So, today we're going to go ahead and give him his first official bath," the NICU nurse on-duty, Estelle, informed them. "He was rinsed off immediately after birth last week, but they did not use soap because that would've taken up extra time and they wanted to get him in here and hooked to all the monitors as fast as they possibly could," she explained. "You're both more than welcome to watch and see how it's done if you'd like, this way when he's finally ready to go home, you'll know how to bathe him properly," she explained. Chasity and Jon nodded as they watched an alert Kaleb move around a bit in his isolette; he would always move his legs and arms when he heard their voices nearby. "We'll get that started in about a half an hour. Until then, feel free to pick him up and talk to him; bond with him some more," she said giving them a smile before stepping out of their way so they could spend more time bonding with their son.

After a little more bonding time; where Chasity and Jon both took turns holding him and rocking him in the rocking chair located next to his isolette, Estelle came back and unhooked Kaleb from his pulse reader before leading them to an area of the nursery where all the bathing equipment was setup.

Arriving at the bathing station located on the other side of the NICU, Chasity and Jon noticed there was a towel laid out on the table with another little towel and a tiny baby rag, another clean diaper, a small bucket of water, and a container of babies Johnson & Johnson shampoo to wash Kaleb with next to it. Estelle laid him on the table and dipped the wash cloth into the water before running it over Kaleb's skin gently. She continued the process throughout the entire bath, with Jon and Chasity watching her every movement. "Until he's old enough to sit in his baby bath tub and be surrounded by water; which you don't wanna do until he's able to fully control his own head, you'll wanna bathe him with his diaper still on until you're ready to wash that part of him. Otherwise, you're liable to get peed on," She explained, causing Jon and Chasity to chuckle and nod in acknowledgement. "You probably won't have to worry about the oxygen at home, given he's being slowly reduced and should be off of it by his tentative release date, but you want to avoid his nose as much as possible while he's on it," she told them, showing them how to avoid his nasal cannula equipment, as well as his belly button because of his umbilical cord that hadn't fallen out yet.

When Kaleb had started fussing half way through the bath, Chasity took the out stretched rag from Estelle's hand and gently massaged his little feet and legs with it while Jon held his left hand and talked to him. Undoing the diaper, Chasity finished up the bath. Estelle had stepped back letting the parents get acquainted with the process, but never leaving them alone just in case they needed help.

Once Kaleb was finally totally clean, Jon held up the towel and Chasity picked him up and placed him securely in Jon's arms, allowing him to wrap the towel around the baby and pull him safely to his chest. Being sure to support his head, Jon quickly dried the infant off while Chasity got his new diaper ready. As soon as Jon was sure he was completely dry, he laid him back on the table where Chasity had placed the diaper, and she quickly closed and secured the diaper around their son's tiny hips before picking him up and snuggling him to her chest, being careful not to disturb the nasal cannula prongs in his nose.

"Well, that went fairly well for your first attempt, and the tag team work was excellent," Estelle complimented.

"The tag team work comes like second nature to me; I'm actually in a tag team at work," Jon joked. Estelle chuckled.

"Let's take him back over to his isolette and I'll go talk to Doctor Michaels and see when he wants to come check him out." Jon and Chasity nodded, following Estelle back over to Kaleb's isolette. Chasity laid him down and watched Estelle hook his pulse reader back to his finger before she walked away to go see when the doctor would be over for his daily checkup on Kaleb.

It took about fifteen minutes, but Doctor Michaels and Estelle finally came back over to see Kaleb and do his routine daily checkup. "So I hear the little guy had his first bath today," Doctor Michaels says, as he shakes both Jon and Chasity's hands. They nod their head acknowledging his question. "He's doing really well. Most preemies have at least one or two setbacks while they're here, but he hasn't had any as of yet. Hopefully it'll stay that way. But I will warn you, if he does have a setback, don't panic. There's nothing to panic over because it's normal for preemies," Doctor Michaels told them. "Tomorrow morning I'm going to have his oxygen reduced to fifteen percent. If he does well with that then we'll attempt to remove it completely on Saturday," Doctor Michael informed them. "If we can do that, he'll definitely be home by his one month birthday because at that point the only reason he's here is for his bili light treatments. But as I just said, there is always a possibility of setbacks. So don't get upset if it doesn't work the first time," Doctor Michaels warned. Chasity and Jon nodded. "So that's the plan, and we'll see how it all plays out. Sound like a good plan to you guys," he asked.

"Sounds like a perfect plan," Chasity says as Jon nods in agreement.

They stayed in the NICU until visiting hours were over and then they headed home to get something to eat and go to bed. They planned on being back at the hospital as soon as visiting hours started in the morning because they wanted to see how Kaleb tolerated another oxygen reduction. If it went well, they both knew they were well on their way to having Kaleb home by the time he was one month old. And that feeling was one neither of them wanted to let go of.

Author's Note: So I noticed I never really gave a date for Kaleb's birthday. And in all honesty, I never really thought about it. So I thought about it a bit and tried to do that math(my math skills suck so this may not be exact, but it's fiction, so I'll run with it) and came up with January 5, 2014 as his birthday; putting his release date(one month 'birthday') at February 5th. So, yeah, that's how I came up with that date. :)