Movin' On Up!

One thing that you don’t want to hear when you come to visit your baby in the NICU: “Let’s see if we can find your baby.” Jeffrey’s been moved once, from B2 pod to C2 pod. We’ve come to know and enjoy the nurses in our pod, so it came as some disappointment when I learned that Jeffrey had been moved out of the NICU and into a NICU-annex in the Pediatric Critical Care Unit. But that didn’t last long. As much as we’ll miss our old nurses, the new “suite” is very nice. It’s quiet, there’s a private bathroom and sink, you can pump at the baby’s bedside, there’s a live Ethernet port with Internet access and they play soft music in the room. Jeff’s sharing a room with two other babies and one Nurse Sandy. All in all, it’s quite nice and has a lovely view from the window.
We’ve been told that this means that he’s doing well enough to be in the annex, and that he’ll likely stay up here unless he gets another infection or some other condition. But that’s not going to happen!
I was feeding the boy during doctor’s rounds this morning. Their plan for him right now is to:

• Slowly wean him off nasal cannula. He’s currently on room air at 0.5-1.0 lpm.


• Introduce him to breast feeding everyday. He’ll catch on eventually. Literally.


• Begin adding Human Milk Fortifier (HMF) to his feeds for extra calories.


• Move him to an open crib once they’re convinced that he’s capable of holding his body temperature without expending too many calories to do it.


• Continue “dressing him up” so that he’s used the stimulus of clothing touching him. The developmental specialist says that’s a sign of a maturing nervous system.

Vitals: Head circumference holding fast – ultrasound officially revealed no expansion or dissolution of the IVH. Dr. Murray suspects that it will dissolve all on its own soon, and they scheduled a follow-up u/s next week. Weight up to 1345g. For reference, 1361g is 3 lbs. His belly was a little bit big after his 6 PM feeding, but it’s likely that it was just from air or needing to have another movement.
That’s our boy!