The Best Thing: Three Weeks... and a few days...

Hi sweet boy,
What a crazy week it has been! Your tummy is still causing Momma a bit of stress. You were doing great with the lower volume earlier in the week after Saturday's events, but when you got back up to full feeds again yesterday you had a large residual and a distended belly again. This time the doctors had a different plan that just involved giving you some glycerin (stool softener) and letting you work through your feeding and hope for the best. They kept you at a full feed and you did great throughout the night, you had small residuals and a big poop at 6pm. You spit up a few times when we were with you last night, and it looks like you have some reflux issues. Even this morning you had small residuals, but you did spit up a few more times. At rounds, everyone decided to back off on the volume of your feed from 30 ml (1oz) to 25 ml and see if it improves. I do not like watching you struggle with the reflux! You look miserable as you fight to keep all of that milk down in your belly! Momma didn't hold you today because I wanted your tummy to rest. If you did spit up, I wanted to know that it was because of your tummy, not because I was moving you all around. That was a tough decision on my part, I wanted to be selfish and hold you because I love it so much, but I knew it was better for you to rest. I just got off the phone with your nurse and she said that you did great this afternoon! You had a "huge" poop, and a .8 ml residual at your 3pm feeding. Hopefully, you will get used to the high volume of food soon and start to get a little more regular on your own. We are asking for lots of prayers that your tummy gets better and the reflux starts to go away! The doctors and nurses keep stressing to Momma and Daddy that this is all perfectly normal for a preemie, but I still want you to feel better SOON!
On an AWESOME note, you weigh 3 lbs 8 oz, and your lungs are doing great! You are still on 21% oxygen (room air) and they are weening you off of your cannula, today it was at .400 flow! Last week you were at 1.5 liters! You have also been wearing clothes this week, your incubator temp has been turned down, and you have been maintaining a good body temperature on your own. These are all great signs and mean that you are that much closer to coming home. We love you sweet boy! Below is a video and some pictures of you this past week!

You always seem to be getting the hiccups!