Still Making Progress

Weston is still making progress and is headed in the right direction.  They have been steadily increasing his food amount (he is receiving breast milk that I am pumping and keeping in the NICU) and they have also increased his nippling attempts to all feeds if he is awake.  He did very well the first few days and was taking almost every other meal through the bottle but then as his body is working to digest and do more, he is tuckering out a little more and even though he is taking more food, they are sometimes electing to feed him through the tube.  They have told us that babies at Week 34 (which he hit yesterday) tend to sleep a lot more and they become more alert and have longer wake periods when they hit Week 35 so we are anxiously awaiting that so that he will hopefully take all his food through the bottle.  We may see it before Week 35 as Weston has been described as being more "mature" than most babies his age (he obviously gets that from his mom--err, maybe a distant relative?) but we will just be happy when he hits that point!  Yesterday his IV was removed and it was so nice to see all four major limbs without a needle through them!  He has no needles just leads that measure his vitals now!  Wahoo!

Although we are used to seeing him in there, it is getting harder for us to leave him at all.  We know he is getting good care, but my impatience is certainly beginning to show and Andrew has been a wonderful rock through it all.  For those who know me well, emotions are not my best as I don't tend to show them--well, at least not the sappy emotions so Weston is certainly giving me a taste of what I have been missing at times.  I just keep reminding myself that it's not here to stay and it's probably the hormones anyways!  :)  I told Andrew the other day that I couldn't wait to have the experience of meeting him at the door with a crying baby and handing Weston off to Andrew and saying "Here!  You try!"  Sort of crazy, I know, but at least he would be home, right?

Here's a checklist of what is posted by Weston's bedside showing what he has to do:

For now, we know that we have 2 of these checked off.  He is gaining weight; he was 11 grams away from being at the "discharge weight" on Tuesday night.  And, of course, we are ready for him!  We are thinking we may see the crib stage soon as his temperature has been quite good the last few days and as he is digesting more food, he is able to work on keeping his own temperature up and thus can be in a crib and out of that hot house they have him in.  Fingers crossed that we see that soon!

I have more pictures to post but for now the computer isn't cooperating so hopefully I will get those up soon as I know you want to see more than a checklist!  :)