Caleb Update: 12/18/07

Sorry, it's been a little while since the last post.

The last few days have been a little up and down as far as Caleb's progress is concerned. On Saturday, we talked to the doctor and he said that given his current state it might be a week to 10 days before being discharged. This was exciting news and gave us a real boost of hope. However, later that day and now these last couple days Caleb seems to have hit a wall. He has had trouble pooing and seems to be struggling with that all the time. On Saturday, he didn't have one the entire time we were there. He seemed to be uncomfortable all the time and wasn't interested in eating at all. Finally on Sunday, he had a real good BM and seemed to be a bit more comfortable, but he slept literally all day because he was so exhausted from struggling so much the day before. Again, he didn't eat much orally. Yesterday (Monday), he looked fine and was awake during his feeding times, but he just didn't want to eat. He would sit there with the bottle or breast in his mouth, but wouldn't suck. Needless to say we're both a little frustrated and a bit worried. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing. The nurse said that it may be the iron supplement that they mix with his food that may be making him a bit constipated. She also said that he may just want to take a breather because the last few weeks have been pretty overwhelming. We hope this is the case and that he'll pick back up soon.

At this point, having him home for Christmas is extremely unlikely to happen. Oh well, we'll have him home soon enough I suppose. Right now we just want him to start eating again. He didn't gain any weight yesterday due to spending so much energy trying to make a BM. However, he is currently at 4lb 14oz, very close to the 5lb mark.

He is just over 35 weeks gestational age. The doctor said that usually around 35-37 weeks something clicks with babies and they just seem to "get it." Once this happens they start taking most of their feeds orally and progress is usually very speedy at this point. Let's pray that he clicks in the next week or so.

This weekend we were visited by Katie and Pat, as well, as Scott and Lois. It was fun to visit with them and catch up on what's going on in the "real world." It seems we're a bit in a parallel universe as our life has been put on hold since Caleb was born, so it was nice to see friendly faces to remind us that there is life outside the hospital.

Did I tell you that we moved rooms? We were transferred out of the "sickly" portion of the NICU, where the beds are needed by more critical babies, into the pediatric side. The room is twice as big and with a real bed. It is a lot like the birthing suite that we were in when Adrienne was admitted. It's very nice and much quieter than the other room. So if you come by to visit you don't need to walk all the way down to the end of the hall, it is actually much closer to the front door which is nice. Thanks again to Scott and Lois for helping us pack up and move to the new room, it was a big help.

Here are a few more Caleb pictures:

Contemplating on whether his hat is a Christmas hat or Jamaican.

This is HALF of a cinnamon roll that Katie and Pat brought us!

I'll continue to keep you posted.

Ryan