July 28, 2006
Michael's Four Week Birthday Ok, I figured that Michael's four week birthday would be a good day to recap his current status, as that seems to be the most common question we get.
He has been off of all support systems for a couple weeks now (July 10th to be exact). This include any breathing assistance, whether that be a ventalator tube or just the nasal canula. He has also been off of the biliruben phototherapy light for quite a long time as well (July 9th). He has also been off his IV for about that long.
So, at this point, the only thing keeping him at the hospital is his need to build up his eating strength. He is still receiving most of his eight feedings per day through his feeding tube. In the pictures, that is the tube going into his nostril. He does try several bottle feedings per day, but frequently doesn't have the stamina to finish the entire feeding by mouth. In that event, the remainder of the feeding is given through that ng tube (I've been assuming that "ng" stands for nasal-gastro, or something similar).
The main thing to remember is that even though Michael is gaining weight very well, and is fairly big, he is still very early. According to the NICU staff, coordinating breathing, sucking , and swallowing doesn't normally happen until after 34 weeks gestational age. At his first tries at bottle feeding, which happened on July 11, he was still just reaching 33 weeks. Additionally, they don't expect full coordination until at least 36 weeks, which Michael won't reach until early August. And full breast feeding isn't really expected until just shortly before the original due date.
So given all of that, Michael seems to still be about a week ahead of "schedule". This also explains why there is no specified date as to when he gets to come home. It is all up to his schedule. He gets to come home when he is receiving all of his nutrition by mouth, whether from a bottle or breast, for at least 24 hours, but probably closer to 72 hours.
So, whether that is early next week, or several weeks away, we probably won't know until a day or so before. He is making very good stides in that direction, and it could just "click" one day. We just won't know until that happens.
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And now for your actual update:
Michael had his eyes checked for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) today. He hasn;t cried that much since the day his chest tube was wrapped around his foot. They have to dilate his eyes and then they use a tweezer-type too to hold his eyelids open while the doctor looks at his retinas. After all the screaming, it was nice to hear that his are are doing great. No signs of ROP, just healthy, fully mature eyes.
After that we opted to not try giving him a bottle. However, earlier in the day at his 9:00a feeding, Gretchen fed him his entire 55ml bottle in about 10 minutes. He didn't do that extreme at his 12:00p or 3:00p feedings, but he did take some. So he is getting up the stamina slowly.
He has been off of all support systems for a couple weeks now (July 10th to be exact). This include any breathing assistance, whether that be a ventalator tube or just the nasal canula. He has also been off of the biliruben phototherapy light for quite a long time as well (July 9th). He has also been off his IV for about that long.
So, at this point, the only thing keeping him at the hospital is his need to build up his eating strength. He is still receiving most of his eight feedings per day through his feeding tube. In the pictures, that is the tube going into his nostril. He does try several bottle feedings per day, but frequently doesn't have the stamina to finish the entire feeding by mouth. In that event, the remainder of the feeding is given through that ng tube (I've been assuming that "ng" stands for nasal-gastro, or something similar).
The main thing to remember is that even though Michael is gaining weight very well, and is fairly big, he is still very early. According to the NICU staff, coordinating breathing, sucking , and swallowing doesn't normally happen until after 34 weeks gestational age. At his first tries at bottle feeding, which happened on July 11, he was still just reaching 33 weeks. Additionally, they don't expect full coordination until at least 36 weeks, which Michael won't reach until early August. And full breast feeding isn't really expected until just shortly before the original due date.
So given all of that, Michael seems to still be about a week ahead of "schedule". This also explains why there is no specified date as to when he gets to come home. It is all up to his schedule. He gets to come home when he is receiving all of his nutrition by mouth, whether from a bottle or breast, for at least 24 hours, but probably closer to 72 hours.
So, whether that is early next week, or several weeks away, we probably won't know until a day or so before. He is making very good stides in that direction, and it could just "click" one day. We just won't know until that happens.
*********************************
And now for your actual update:
Michael had his eyes checked for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) today. He hasn;t cried that much since the day his chest tube was wrapped around his foot. They have to dilate his eyes and then they use a tweezer-type too to hold his eyelids open while the doctor looks at his retinas. After all the screaming, it was nice to hear that his are are doing great. No signs of ROP, just healthy, fully mature eyes.
After that we opted to not try giving him a bottle. However, earlier in the day at his 9:00a feeding, Gretchen fed him his entire 55ml bottle in about 10 minutes. He didn't do that extreme at his 12:00p or 3:00p feedings, but he did take some. So he is getting up the stamina slowly.
