Thirty-One Weeks

Mattie is doing very well in his new house; they're putting him on the nasal cannula for longer periods of time, and so far he's doing well with it. He also keeps knocking the CPAP out, but it often doesn't cause him to have apneas, so the nurses are not too worried about it -- they say that maybe it's just part of weaning him off it. And he likes sucking on his pacifier, good practice for when he starts trying regular feeding (maybe another week or two; depends on when he's able to get off the CPAP). James likes his pacifier, too, but sometimes he can only do one thing at once and forgets to breathe when he's sucking on it.

When Matthew has a diaper change in the isolette, they don't open it all the way up. Instead, we just stick our hands in through the portholes, which keeps the heat in better. It takes a little getting used to! Fortunately, he behaved himself today and didn't go crazy with the diaper-time pooping.

James had a great day; his nurse said he was really active and alert this morning, and he was sleeping peacefully when we were there. They did start him on his feeds. They're doing what's called continuous feeding, which is delivering small amounts of food very slowly (1 ml over the course of an hour; in contrast, Mattie is getting 26 mls over the course of a half-hour every three hours, and last time they tried James on feeds they started with 3 ml over a half hour). It's probably too early to tell how it's going to go, but they started this afternoon, and when they checked his residuals tonight, they were small (and milk-colored rather than green). So, tomorrow will be a better indicator, but it's a promising start.