51 days old

Chance has been making slow but steady progress. Joc is finally feeling better so he got to come up to the hospital last night. He couldn't come up for like 5 days. He was surprised how big Chance got in just those few days.

His daily feeds are increasing daily, he's up to 13 ml/ 3 hrs. If he continues to tolerate the feeds, this time next week he should be on full feeds!! Yay!!!!! That's HUGE! Then, they can talk about stopping his tpn (nutrients thru iv) and remove his picc line in his foot. What does that mean?? That means he'll have no more needles stuck in his body unless he needs more blood or for blood gases. But no more left in permanently!

He's still having desats and bradys where he drops his o2 level and heart rate. This is a typical preemie thing. Basically his immature brain forgets to breath for a second or two which causes his stats to drop. Half the time he brings himself up all by himself but other times he needs some stimulation and extra o2 for a bit to bring him back up. He is still on the NIPPV though which is great! They're slightly weening his rate tomorrow night from 30 to 25. He will remain on the NIPPV until his desat and brady episodes stop. The doctors say by 36 weeks, that's when most episodes disappear. The younger the baby was born the closer to 36 weeks it usually takes.

Next week is a busy week for Chance.

He gets his 2nd head ultrasound to check for his grade 1 bleeding. Prayerfully it's lessened and/or dissipated altogether.

He gets his 2 month immunizations. Poor guy ;-(

And he gets his 3rd ROP eye exam. He did have zone 1 in his left eye two weeks ago. So prayerfully that hasn't worsened and his right eye will still be clear.

I'm getting my much needed dose of kangaroo care today!