Wow...

It's been a few days since my last post, so there are a few things to cover.

First, Dylan hit 4 weeks old last Friday. It's weird because it seems like such a long time that he's been in the NICU, but at the same time, it doesn't seem nearly long enough to be 4 weeks since he has arrived.

He is also packing on the weight. As of tonight, Dylan weighs 2270 grams, or 5 lbs!!!
That's right... 5 lbs. Now, it was quite a considerable weight gain from yesterday, so it's likely that he may lose a bit of that weight, but still... 5 lbs!

In my last entry I mentioned that Dylan had started with trying to master bottle feeding. That is going fairly well also. His nurse for the day shift today noticed that Dylan was sticking his tongue to the roof of his mouth, making it impossible for him to get good suction or flow from the bottle. She worked with him for a while, and got him to eat his full 39cc from his bottle this afternoon. She also had the on-call doctor today order physical therapy for him to work with the technique for moving his tongue to the right place in order to eat from a bottle. It may seem odd to have a 4 week old infant getting physical therapy to help him eat, but because he's a preemie, it's something that is often needed, or at least very helpful. Keep in mind, if things had gone as planned, Dylan wouldn't be worried about where his tongue was at feeding time. He'd still have another 4 to 6 weeks in the womb to think things over. Since he's here now though, he'll need a little help getting the more advanced things down pat. Working to suck from a bottle, swallow his milk, and breathe at the right times without choking is quite a feat for someone who is supposed to be weeks away from breathing at all, and getting all of his nutrition from an umbilical cord. Tonight, he didn't do nearly as well, but it's all part of the learning process.

One other development that has come up... His day nurse feels that it may be time to consider an open air crib instead of the isolette he is currently residing in. This is a big step if he can do it, because it means that Dylan can maintain his own body temp- one of the precursors to being able to come home. Now, he's not quite ready for this step yet, but it may come soon. We just don't want to rush things, because it takes energy to feed, energy to grow, and energy to stay healthy. Putting another load on his energy reserves to keep himself warm may not be the best idea- at least not until he has mastered the bottle feeding thing. Still, we brought up some of his preemie outfits for him to wear when the time comes. He'll be looking good when he's ready to show it all off.

Well... that's all for now. I'm off to bed. I'll try to update a bit more often, but things get kinda hectic, so don't count on it. :)