Going steady

Well, it’s been three days now, and Colin is still off the ventilator. And he’s doing very well without it. His oxygen level has been weaned down to 23% (the air you and I breathe is 21% oxygen, for comparison), and he has not been desatting much if at all. He still is sensitive to the touch quite often, which makes him crabby whenever anyone tries to change his diaper or do anything to him. But his angry fits don’t seem to be quite as bad as when he was on the ventilator, leading me to believe he feels better without it. 

Now we just need to get the boy to gain some weight. All his fighting is burning off too many calories (the equivalent of running a marathon for his little body) and he actually lost weight in the first two days off the vent. They continue to increase the amount of milk he gets, and have started fortifying the milk with extra calories. He spent most of today sleeping, so I hope at tonight’s weigh-in that he will be back up to 2.5 pounds at least. 

Veronica continues to gain proficiency with the bottle. At her two feedings during the day today, she took nearly all 50 ml (leaving behind 6 ml at one feeding and 9 ml at the other). Taking that much by bottle does wear her out, and she tends to sleep through the next feeding. But her technique is good, and she is having fewer desats while eating — meaning she is remembering to breathe. 

Veronica has been steadily gaining weight too. She is now up to a whopping 5 pounds 15 ounces, and is starting to look like a normal newborn. It’s hard to believe that six weeks ago she only weighed 2.5 pounds, and that by all rights she shouldn’t even be born yet.