Closer and closer

Dylan continues to get closer to coming home.

My conversation with his doctor on Monday went very well. She feels that he is very close to coming home, and if he can go a week without any desat spells or bradycardia, he will be on his way. He actually has a new doctor and nurse practicioner, as the old team have rotated out at the beginning of the month, and they are following the same plan. We've been told that the doctor is "very conservative" though, so hopefully that won't stand in his way of coming home.

He has an exam scheduled for Monday to screen for Retinopathy of Prematurity, a potential problem with the growth of blood vessels in the eyes of preemies. This is one of the hurdles he has to clear before heading home.

Also, he needs to pass a "car seat test" where he will have to spend an hour in his car seat without experiencing any desats. Sometimes preemies, especially those with low upper body muscle tone, will have issues keeping their lungs inflated well enough when is the semi-upright position that they have to sit in while in a car seat. This test will ensure that he will be safe for the ride home.

He continues to feed well, and still exclusively from a bottle. There are a few tricks to getting him to feed at times, as it is still not natural for him to be eating at all. It's hard to remember that he still should be inside his mom, cooking and that he is still learning to do the simple things that you might take for granted from a full term baby. But, even if it does take a bit of work sometimes, Dylan does a great job of feeding and it is reflected in his growth.

As of last night, he weighed 5 lbs 14.9 oz.

His feed schedule has been changed to allow for what they call "ad lib, on demand" feeding. Essentially, this is a change from being fed every 3 hours in that it allows for the nurses to take better advantage of his alert states and feed him when he is ready. Sometimes, he would be scheduled for a feeding at 9pm, but would be wide awake at 8pm. When 9pm came along, the window had been missed and he was sound asleep. That won't be an issue now. He basically get's to eat any time from 2 hours since his last feeding, up to 4 hours from his last feeding, whenever he is most awake, and he eats as much as he wants, with a goal of at least 50cc. As long as he continues to gain weight, feeding shouldn't be a hurdle he faces before heading home.

All in all, he is making good progress. He is just starting another 7 day waiting period though, to go without the bradycardia. Apparently, the nurse that was watching over him for the last two nights observed a brady, and that has reset him for a week. It's tough to be patient when he's so close to coming home, but we're doing our best.