When we came to the NICU this morning RT’s weight is up to 1640 grams or 3.6 lbs. A 20 gram gain since yesterday. He has been gainin weight steadily.
His heart rate is elevated at about 200 Bpm, he is angry. Mouth wide open with his sad silent screams.

This is the first time he has had this nurse but she seems aware of his needs and is tending to him well! She has seen him around.

Nurse says she just changed his diaper 3 times in 30 minutes becase he kept popping! His stomach girth came down 1 cm! She tried some things to help calm him down and said maybe we could do it better. Mom and I got in there and gave him hand hugs and calmed him down, it took a bit but he settled down. Looks like he just needed some more love and attention. He didn’t let us take our hands off him for quite some time.  He really does like knowing people are around.

The IV pole is gone! His PICC line that he has had for 48 days was removed this morning. He is getting enough food and able to take all his medications orally for now. I bet he thinks it is weird that it is no longer on him because he had it for nearly his whole life. I wonder if babies get used to things like that and it starts to feel like it’s a part of them. Feels more open around his incubator with his IV pole gone.

Because he has no IV or PICC he will be getting morphine down his feeding tube instead of the fentanyl drip through IV, continuing to slowly wean him off pain medication.

After we get him calmed down and reswaddled it’s time for a quick lunch in the cafeteria.

After lunch back up. He has been stable and keeping his spo2 within limits on 57% oxygen. Still high percent but he is stable for now! The ventilator is showing him initiating almost all his breaths, so it looks like he is working to breathe and strengthening his muscles.

Pink marks in the green line indicate breaths he initiated himself.