Milestone!

I'm extremely happy to announce that Dylan hit his first significant milestone today!

Tonight, we were able to have Dylan make his first attempts at eating from a bottle. He was a bit tentative at first, but then, he went to work on it wholeheartedly. In all, he ate 6cc from the bottle.

For a first-timer, that's quite a bit. Keep in mind that he still should be in Mom's womb, so any eating at this point is significant. Eating the little bit that he did was quite a drain on him, and he went to sleep right after, getting the rest of his 37cc in his NG tube. We didn't get a weight for him tonight, as we and the nurse thought it best to let him rest and do the hands-on assessment later.



In other news, I spoke with Dylan's doc today regarding the neuro consult. Essentially, the neurologist had the same things to say: Dylan is at risk for developmental delays, either cognitive or motor related or both. They would not or could not place odds on what type of challenges Dylan may face or how severe they may be, but his doc did say that she would be "very surprised" if he did not have some sort of consequences of this brain abnormality. Whatever comes, will come, and Barbara and I are prepared to meet it all head on.

One minor note from the neurologist- they are no longer calling what they see in Dylan's brain leukomalacia. Instead they are referring to it as suspected neuronal migration abnormality. A slightly different condition, but the prognosis is the same.

Back from the NICU

We're back from the NICU for the night, and Dylan continues his encouraging growth.

Tonight, he weighed in at 4 lbs, 9 oz or 2060g. Of course, not long after that, he unloaed the biggest pile of poop I've ever seen him let loose with. And guess whos turn it was to change his diaper?

Yep- mine. Not only did he have a dirty diaper when we opened it up, but as I was changing it, he decided to fill up the new one I had underneath him. And then, just when I thought it was safe to put the third diaper on him, he unloaded some more. I'm not going to speculate which of us he inherited this trait from.

There's not much else new going on right now. Tomorrow morning I'll be going up to see Dylan during the time that the docs make their rounds. I'll be speaking with Dyalns doc to get the latest info from the neuro consult regarding the brain issue and what sort of prognosis we are looking at. Of course, it's all just specualtion, at best, but at least with the neuro consult, we can have something of a better idea what to expect.

Anyway, that's all for now.

I thought I would leave you all with a collection of photos of some of Dylan's favorite nurses...

A brief update before bed...

A few pertinent notes...

Dylan's weight is up to 2010g or 4 lbs 7 oz. He is eating 37cc of breastmilk with each feeding.

Also, he can suck on a pacifier pretty darn well. We popped a binky in his mouth during his feeding last night, and he sucked away at it like a champ!

That's very encouraging news, as preemies don't always learn to suck very easily, and this is a sign that bottle or breast feeding will soon be an option.

The doc wants to try him on a bottle this week. We'll let you all know how that goes as soon as it happens.

Anyway, that's all I have time for right now... More tomorrow, maybe!