Today you are five weeks old! Daddy and I have been looking back at pictures of you from the week you were born. You have come so far! You were a frail, skinny little thing with lots of wires and tubes connected to you. Today you have chubby little cheeks, a face free of tubes, and you will curiously look around the room and interact with us. So far, you have been tolerating your feedings much better! You have been pooping like a mad man, three times this morning alone. I guess you didn't like that contrast enema all that much! Today you weighed 4 lbs 4.9 oz, and you are officially "ad-libbing" your feedings. That means you get to decide how much you want to eat from your bottle instead of them forcing you to eat 30+ mls. For example, at noon today you took 27 mls and at 3 o'clock you took 35 mls! As long as you continue to take more than your minimum, 25 mls, you won't need your feeding tube back in! You kept pulling it out anyways, and your are still gaining weight, so the nurses and doctors thought they would leave it out as long as you continue to eat well. Yesterday, you took 86% of your food from your bottle! Just last week it was 10%! Hopefully, tomorrow you will have taken all of it :)
You are doing SO great that the doctors gave us some good news yesterday... if you continue to improve the way you are, we might get to bring you home within the next two weeks!!!! Words cannot even begin to describe how excited I am! The news caught me off guard because it was the first discussion I have had with a doctor about when you would get to come home. I was told at some point after you were born that it would be around your due date, and no one has mentioned anything different since then. I sat there holding you and cried and cried I was so happy! I probably made the doctors and nurses uncomfortable, but oh well! You will have to stay in the hospital at least through next Monday, because this past Monday you had an apnea "episode" after your super exhausting morning of the enema, diaper blowouts, baths, and feedings. The NICU rule is that babies have to go episode free for one week before they can go home. Hopefully, you won't have anymore episodes and you will continue to take all of your bottles so that we can bring you home next week! I'm trying to not get my hopes up, but I've been in your room all afternoon taking inventory of your preemie/newborn clothes just in case :) We love you so much and are proud of how strong you are!
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| Above: You on January 14th Below: Your silly faces on February 11th :) |
p.s. Snowpocalypse 2014 is currently going on outside, already 5 inches! Daddy, Lauren and I just went for a little joy ride around Clemmons in your Daddy's big Jeep, we might or might not have done donuts in a couple parking lots.... don't worry it was completely safe! I'll post some pictures of the snow tomorrow :)
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