Merry Christmas to all.....

This was obviously Jack's first Christmas. Sadly he didn't get to spend it opening presents or watching them being opened. He did, however, receive many wonderful gifts from friends and family. He will get to see them when he comes home. Jack did well overnight. Well enough that they took him off of the CPAP machine and he is now on high flow oxygen through a nasal canula. The doctors increased his feeding again, now up to 23 ml of fortified milk. It must be paying off because he gained another 10 g overnight (now 2 lbs 7 oz). He still doesn't care much for laying on his back, but he is starting to tolerate it more which is good because we don't want him to have what the nurses call toaster head (a skinny narrow head from only laying on the sides of his head).

Mary got to do about another 30 minutes of kangaroo time before I sang some silly Christmas song, made Mary laugh and startle Jack. So he went back inside his isolette to sleep. Also, this fortified milk is making Jack have big smelly poops. We are happy with, as the doctor put it, slow and steady improvement.

Some Ups and Downs

Today Jack is 10 days old (27 weeks 5 days gestation age). He weighed in at 2 lbs 2.6 ozs (980 grams), that is up 1.6 ozs (40 grams). We arrived to do his care and he also got a visit from Great Uncle Mike and Great Aunt Mary. They were both surprised at how smaller he looked in person than in the videos, but said he was the cutest. Uncle Mike got to watch me change a very poopy diaper, still no more rejected feeding (hooray Jack way to digest!!). They have decided to up his feeding amounts from 2ml to 3ml per feeding. They're trying to get him all plumped up. Jack didn't do alot of fussing today during his care. Either he has gotten adjusted to us messing with him, or he was tired.

Jack has been having some apnea issues and had to be moved from his CPAP machine to a SIPAP machine. They are very similar. The CPAP kept a steady pressure inside Jack's lungs to keep them from deflating when he exhaled. The SIPAP does the pressure thing, but also aids him in breathing by assisting with little breaths. Not a ventilator, but should his apnea keep up or increase he would have to be placed back on the ventilator (fingers crossed he gets better). We also noticed a little yellow gunk around his eye. The nurse got it all cleaned up and we will watch for more to appear. Hopefully it won't come back, but if it does it might be an infection and Jack will need to get some antibiotics.

A Little Lighter

Today Jack weighed in at 2 lbs 1 oz (940 grams). It was down about 1 oz or 30 grams from yesterday. They think it was possibly due to all his excitement yesterday, and burning too many calories. So, we are going to wait until he gets a little bigger before we try to kangaroo it up again. But, Mary was very happy that she got to hold him yesterday. The doctor came in and told us that his sugar and sodium levels were right on the line for it to be considered high. So, they will adjust all of his IV/nutrients mix and it should bring it back under control.

Last night when we went in for his 9:30pm care time, he had a feeding in his tummy that he rejected. They decided to discard that feeding and try a new one. Good news, this morning we got positive reports that he digested all his feeding overnight, and he didn't have any issues all day. They also increased his feedings from 1ml to 2ml.
He was also taken off of phototherapy again. His bilirubin levels had come back down (but it is common for them to fluctuate). There has been talk of moving him from his CPAP machine over to a vapotherm machine (which is a step in the right direction). That would be at least 2 to 3 days away.

At his 3:30pm care time Jack's oxygen levels were up a little bit, still in the good range, but up from where he has been. Hopefully he was just having a tired/lazy day after all the excitement from yesterday. We are back at home for the night to reload and recharge, then tomorrow back to the trailer for the night.