Eleven Two and Eight

We again made our visits at 11a, 2p and 8p today.

11a - Ryan was awake when we arrived at our 11a visit. His nurse was changing his "house" (he got a new incubator). We gave Ryan a bath and then he was visited by the developmental nurse who came in and tested his reflexes to make sure that he was developing at the right pace for his age. Ryan least liked when the examiner flicked him on his feet to provoke crying. I thought that he would least like the feeling of being dropped - - but he actually didn't even cry. He just threw out his arms as if to balance himself from the fall.

His doctor confirmed that he is to increase feeding amounts by 5 cc's with each feeding. With this visit we gave him 25 cc's of milk. Jeff held him most of this morning. He slept most of the time.

2p - We came back to feed Ryan after Jeff and I had lunch. He was given a (second) hearing test - for which he (again) passed. The first test was given when he was 2 days old. They re-test as part of being at another hospital - and as part of the procedure for discharge. Because of the testing, Ryan was about one hour behind with his feeding. He was given 30 cc's of milk. Because of all of the activity of the day (bath, exercise, testing, increased feedings) Ryan again slept most of our visit.

Antibiotics were stopped and he is going to be slowly weened off of his IV at a rate equal to his milk increase.

8p - Ryan was sleeping when we got to the NICU. We changed his diaper, had him weighed and fed him 40 cc's. He didn't stay awake very long. He zonked out for most of the hour and a half we were there with him. (See picture)

By the time that we arrive for tomorrow's 11a visit - Ryan should be up to 65 cc's of milk. When he is able to sustain 80 cc's of milk, we will be able to bring him home. So for now, we just cross our fingers that he continues to be able to digest and poop! By this time tomorrow night we will know if Ryan is consuming the amount of milk that the doctor's want him to be eating in order to bring him home. We suspect that Sunday could be the day Ryan comes home!