One Week!

This is my hand over Aaron calming him down. Usually when I come in and talk to him he will wake up and "help" with his lines. I let him move and stretch for a few minutes and then do my best to calm him down so he doesn't have to have more medication to be sedated. The less sedation the better. Other than when he is weighed, this is as much as we get to touch him at one time.

See below: Aaron is "helping" with his breathing tube. Not really helping though, that tube is rather important and needs to stay there buddy! Notice the size of that diaper, the size of the smallest diaper is about half a graham cracker and it was big on him. This one is about half the size of a newborn diaper you can get at the store. They had to put him in this bigger diaper because he pees like crazy. We noticed when we changed his diaper the nurses had even stuffed gauze down the front hoping that would help with the tidal wave that seems to come. When they weighed this diaper it came in at 17 grams. When your entire weight is barely over 400 grams you can see that this is a significant amount he's peeing off! He's also pooping, which tells us his digestive system and bowel system are up and running! I know its crazy to hear me get so excited about my boy's diapers but that's what you get today. :)

Above: The tube taped to his hand is his pic-line, this line is used to give him his medications. He also has a peripheral line in his leg where they will draw and administer transfusions. Usually they would put a double pic-line in but Aaron is too small for that so this is what they had to do. They put these new lines in and took out his umbilical lines as those lines are prone to more infections. An infection now would be devastating so we are all for less germs!

One week ago today! That's right 1 week, Wonder Boy continues his fight and we are cheering him on! (This is one of my favorite pictures of him right after he was born, check out that hat, I need to track it down up there, it has to be so small!)

So the big news from yesterday..... did you notice the large respirator taped to his nose in this last picture???? Now go back and look at the upper pictures. That's right no respirator!!! Yesterday at 2:00 Aaron was extubated from his respirator and oxygen lines were put in. Aaron is breathing 100% on his own! The machine he is on now is called a high flow machine and will monitor his breathing pattern and give him a dose of oxygen anytime it registers that his breathe wasn't big enough, just fills in the gaps so to speak. It does not move his chest up and down or inflate his lungs, its just a support. We had not expected this to happen for a few more weeks so we are somewhat in shock as to how well he is doing. They do have the respirator right next to his isolette just in case they need it again. Hopefully not!

On Saturday the doctors also decided it was time for Aaron to start "eating" and started him on 1 ml of breast milk every 6 hours through his feeding tube. His stomach is checked before each feeding to make sure the last had been digested. So far he eats like a champ and everything is going through which leads to those poopy diapers I was talking about earlier. Last night we were there when he was fed and his little eyebrows raised up as if stay say, yum! He also calmed right down after it went through and went to sleep. He is doing so well with this that they are going to double his intake today. 1 ml every 3 hours. Aaron also grew 1 centimeter this last week coming in today at 25 cm long. I know 1 cm sounds so little but we cheer for each 1 we get. He is scheduled for his next nuero ultrasound Monday morning. They are mainly checking for bleeds in his brain. If all comes back normal he won't have another one for a month. We should get the preliminary results sometime tonight and the final ones in a day or two.

We are able to visit and call his nurse at any time day or night. We try to call every morning for an update, just after his "cares" at 3, and before we go to bed at night. At least one of us also visits him each day. He has his own nurse assigned to him so someone is there with him at all hours of the day. We wish one of us could be there with him day and night but that just isn't reality, for now this is enough.