Return to the Big Boy Bed

Mattie got promoted to the open crib again last night, and is keeping his temperature up just fine so far. However, he may have been missing his isolette today -- there are two new babies in the pod, and one of them (the one right next to Matthew) is VERY LOUD. As in, I could hear him crying all the way down the hall even though the pod door was closed. The other new one is a bit of a crier, too. (I didn't realize before how spoiled we were with the preemies -- even though Matthew cries when we're doing something he doesn't like, as soon as we finish whatever it is, he quits crying. The bigger/older babies keep up the crying for longer. I guess this is a preview of coming attractions.)

Mattie is doing fine on the cannula, and they moved his feeding tube from his mouth to his nose. (I thought this would be kind of gross looking, but actually, with the tape to hold it on, it's barely noticeable.) Sometime within the next few days, they're planning to start trying to do some of his feedings by mouth (bottle-feeding). They look for signs that he's ready, like rooting around or sucking on his pacifier. (I'm absurdly excited about this! It'll be great to be able to feed him that way.)

Mike was on duty for today's triple-diaper poop. It was quite impressive, complete with sound effects.

Matthew's weight last night was 2000 grams (millennium baby!), or about 4 lbs, 6 oz. At this point, most of that is probably real weight rather than fluid. We can't say the same about James, who is tipping the scales at above 2100 grams. So although he's currently more than double his birth weight and bigger than his brother, lots of that is still fluid, so it doesn't count! They gave him a dose of diuretic today (Lasix, which always makes me think of laser eye surgery when they say it), which should help with that.

James is off the ventilator, and doing fine on his CPAP. He was agitated off and on this afternoon, squirming around and fussing. We couldn't figure out why; maybe his throat was a little sore from the ventilator tube, or maybe he had some gas, or maybe something else. (The squirming might help work some of the fluid out, so at least that had a side benefit.) He seemed a little happier when he was sucking on his pacifier, and he also seemed to settle down a bit by the time we left, when they had him lying on his tummy.

Oh, and the doctor informed us that James had a broken clavicle (collarbone) "at admission" -- that is, from his birth. It's all healed up now, of course, but they noticed it on the X-ray. Poor kid! We're sad that it happened, but it's good to know about it (that way if we ever have to take him to the emergency room, it'll be on his medical record so they don't drag us off to jail for child abuse).

In more positive news, James also had a new picture up on his monitor (and a fancy new letter B on his crib). Our nurses are great. :) He may not have the crib for much longer; this afternoon the doctor mentioned moving him into an isolette soon.

Edited to add: James had another milestone today -- his umbilical cord stump finally fell off! It's been hanging around for quite a while.