Welcome to Week 30

Our boy is making great progress. I got up this morning to visit in the NICU after the nurses’ shift change at 7:45 AM. He was lying there, just as we left him the night before, under the “tanning lights”. Jeffrey has a very low tolerance for jaundice, so preemies are kept under these blue lights to help their bodies break down the higher levels of bilirubin that their young liver cannot.
He graduated off the ventilator yesterday afternoon. Dr. D’Angio tells us that his progress is very good. He’s still on the CPAP device (continuous positive airway pressure), as his lungs are still a little on the under-cooked side. But even that’s going well, and they’re considering removing the CPAP today or tomorrow. That’s good, because he finds it kinda irritating.
Danielle and I were able to take him out of his giraffe “fort” for about a half hour last night and hold him. For the first time, we were able to feel our baby against our bodies and kiss his teeny wrinkled forehead. It was amazing.
Just before I left for school, Danielle was able to express her first drops of breastmilk. It was enough for the NICU to freeze for his first feeding, coming up this week. They’ve warned us that feeding can be a very difficult time in the NICU with preemie babies. Often it’s “two steps forward, one step back”, and we’re not sure yet how developed his bowels are to handle non-IV food yet. But it’s a good sign that he had his first bowel movement yesterday (I changed his first diaper!).
Thank you for all the well wishes that have been pouring in over the weekend via the blog, email, phone and visits. We’re so glad to have such an amazing network for friends and family to share this experience with. Visitors are welcome at 3-1215 at Strong Hospital, though we can’t allow visitors into the NICU right now. Tomorrow (Tuesday), Dani goes home.