August 6, 2008

Miles is so sweet! He looked visibly better yesterday and today than two days ago. The swelling has gone down some in his little face, and yesterday he was fed a small amount of breastmilk for the first time through a feeding tube (see picture). He is proving that he is able to tolerate it, and today they went up on his dosage and started to wean him off the TPN and lipids. So, I am diligently pumping at home and taking all the frozen milk up to the NICU when we go so that they have plenty in stock for his feedings. If all goes well at his feedings tonight, they may take the line out of his umbilical cord that is giving him those other fluids. Last night they took the first of the two lines out of his umbilical cord. So he's almost line free from that site!! They have completely stopped both sedatives, so we can see him slowly coming off of those. The last two days we've seen him, his little body has the shakes, but the nurses say that's normal for someone coming out of sedation and it just takes time. But tonight he was the most active we have ever seen yet! When we arrived for round 2 at the hospital, the nurse was giving him his first bath and he was NOT liking in one bit! :) She gave him a good scrub and washed his hair, and I'm telling you that when his hair is dried it was blonde!! What? We kinda knew it had a blondish tint in the light, but until tonight I guess it was still kind of matted down and sweaty and I swear looked brown. He had his eyes open too and kept them open longer than we've ever seen. It was the cutest moment, but wouldn't you know it was the ONE visit we forgot the camera!! Aw! He is repsonding well to touch now and makes little faces with his mouth. It is such a joy to see those little signs of life! He is breathing room air now, and today they took him completely off the nip-v, which is what was giving him those 10-15 breaths a minute if he needed help. So he is on CPAP only which is just a little flow of air through the nose tube that puts a little pressure on him to breathe. But he's getting no help other than that, and so far his blood gases are coming back with the CO2 levels decreasing which means he's starting to clear it fine on his own. Hopefully in the next day or two he will have the breathing tube completely out.

Oh, I got to hold him for 2 1/2 hours both yesterday and today while Jeremy did some work. It's the best feeling (even though machines beep all around me and alarms go off sporadically and nurses and doctors in and out constantly - there are several other babies in his room, so not a lot of privacy but Miles and I just learn to create a little bubble around us and we still bond :))! Jeremy holds him at night when we go the second time, and he loves it too. He's going to be a terrific dad! Although he hasn't jumped on a chance to change a diaper yet...