Caleb Update: 12/29/07

Sorry its been a couple days since the last update.

As of 10pm last night he weighed 5lb 14oz, just a hair under 6lbs, and had his last dose of antibiotics. Wahoo! I think he has earned a new nickname: Fatboy Slim seems appropriate. They have started feeding him 3oz of milk every 3 hours beginning at 8am this morning. We arrived at around 12:30 and he has had 2 feedings so far. Robin, our nurse, said that he was a little hesitant with the first one, but the second one he guzzled right down. The doctor is starting him off pretty slow as a precaution to make sure that his gut has fully recovered from the infection and it can handle food again. Baby steps, I guess.

They are feeding him with a bottle and haven't put an NG tube back in which is a very good thing. He is 37 weeks gestation, which is considered full-term, so we expect that he should be able to eat as well as a normal newborn and hopefully won't need the tube put back in. I'm sure Caleb is also thankful for that.

I also forgot to mention that they took him out of his incubator on the 27th and he is back in an open air crib. He isn't wearing clothes yet due to his IV, but once that comes out then his clothes will go back on.

Robin bumped his IV down 1cc today, which isn't much, but its progress. Again, baby steps. Hopefully they will reevaluate his feeding amounts every 12 hours instead of 24 so he can get more food quicker and get his IV out sooner.

As I mentioned before, he continues to be awake more and more and for longer. Yesterday after work, I got to have some kangaroo time (skin-to-skin), where he laid on my chest and looked around checking things out until he finally fell asleep. It was pretty fun.

I'll try to be a little quicker with the next post. Thanks for your continued prayers. Hopefully it won't be long now!

Ryan