Constant Feedings

Ever since Doctor decreased the number of calories in Hunter's meals his weight gain has slowed down.

He is still gaining weight, but it's been a bit slower. He spent a few days hovering around 8 pounds, then jumped up to 8 lbs, 5 oz and that's where he's been all weekend. His new doctor thinks he should be gaining weight better than that so they made a change to how they feed him. She put him on constant feedings so he always has formula coming in through that nose tube. At first they were doing 19 ml per hour which was a small increase in the amount of formula he was getting. Previously he was getting 55 ml per hour and this adds up to 57. Since then they've increased it to 20 ml per hour which gives him 60 ml (2 oz) per meal.

He's doing very well without CPAP. Last night his oxygen requirements and respiratory rates were both higher than usual. He was also very active last night though. I was helping him sit up and he was very happy to be looking around. After a while of playing he grabbed onto my hand and decided it was nap time.

He's scheduled for more routine tests this week. I don't even remember what they are, I do know that he is getting another kidney ultrasound to check on the stones. I'm eager to hear the results for that.

Not Much to Say

Ever since the doctor lowered Hunter's calories he hasn't been gaining much weight. He's been hovering right around 8 pounds for the last few days. Doctor doesn't seem very concerned about that yet, so I don't either.

He is doing very well. When he has his oxygen on he is just like any other newborn. He breathes well and keeps his oxygen up.

Last night he was awake the whole time I was there. He was watching as I would talk to him and tell him stories. He was squirming all over the place. If he could only do that without being hooked up to the tubes and wires that would be wonderful.

I haven't heard any more about the tummy tube surgery that they said may be necessary. Since he is getting better I have a feeling that they may have to do it. There's not much we can do about it, I'd just much rather feed him from a bottle.

Off CPAP Again

They took Hunter off of CPAP again. I guess that means that any strain that was on his heart has been removed. That's a huge relief.

While I was visiting him yesterday he was doing so well, they had his CPAP oxygen turned to only around 40% and he was constantly staying over 98% oxygen saturation. He's also doing excellent without the CPAP now, his breathing and slowed down and he's not requiring as much oxygen as he was before they put him on CPAP. He seems to work this way though, he'll be fine for a few days after being on CPAP then he gets worn out. We're really hoping that he will only get better from here.

His antibiotics are done, so there's no more worries about an infection from the catheter incident of several days ago. I asked Nurse if that meant they were going to try the urine sample again, the answer is "No."

The nurses have all been saying that he gets very angry sometimes and shouts at the top of his lungs. I want to hear him yelling and crying, but he never does it when I'm around. I hope it stays that way once he comes home, too.

Hunter's First Easter

For Hunter's first Easter he took a day to just relax. Doctor was very nice to him, the only thing she ordered was to decrease the amount of calories in his formula. He was getting 30 calories (thats the maximum) with every feeding. They're comfortable with his weight gain and lowered it to 27.

He's still on CPAP and it's settings haven't changed. His weight hasn't changed much either, he gained about 10 grams which leaves him still around 8 pounds.

Nurse put a silly Easter picture of Hunter up on his wall, she took his picture then colored some bunny ears on top of his head. I wonder how many more first holidays we'll have to celebrate with Hunter in the hospital. I certainly hope it's not much more.

Eight Pounds

Hunter hit the big eight pounds.

He's doing very well on his CPAP. Yesterday they were able to turn his oxygen down to around 30%. Room air is around 21% so he's doing better with CPAP then he ever was with the regular oxygen. This makes me feel optimistic that his time with CPAP will be quite short this time. I wouldn't be surprised if the doctor kept him on it just so he doesn't have to strain with the oxygen. I feel optimistic that he will be ready to come off CPAP whenever the doctor is ready.

Hunter back on CPAP

They said they wouldn't have to do it ever again.

He was on a special oxygen machine that would let him get more flow that normal. He wasn't supposed to go back on CPAP.

But it's for his own good.

During the conference we learned about the strain that was being put on Hunter's heart from the hard work that his lungs were doing. He is on medication for that, but in the meantime the best thing they can do is keep his oxygen saturations very high. Even though he was doing alright on the regular oxygen his saturation would drop below 90% often and that just was putting too much extra strain on his little body. They tried turning his oxygen all the way up, but he was still dropping under 95%. Once they got him back on CPAP he was easily staying above 95% and spending a lot of his resting time at 100%.

It sounds like if the pulmonary hypertension medication and the reflux treatment work as expected then his CPAP time should be very short.

Hunter's Conference

Yesterday we had our care conference with Hunter's doctor. Unfortunately, other than the chaplain, she was the only one there. One of Hunter's nurses was sick and the other was busy taking care of him. It was very nice to have some time to sit down and talk face-to-face with his doctor though, we haven't been able to do that for a while.

There were four major things that she covered: lungs, heart, reflux, and kidney stones.

Let's start with lungs. His lungs are not very healthy. As we already know, he is requiring large amounts of oxygen for a baby his age. He is still on 3 liters of oxygen, but is down to about 60%. Doctor said that her goal is to get him down to 1/2 liter at 100% before he comes home. If she can get him that low he can come home with oxygen. They are checking his lungs regularly to make sure he doesn't get an infection, but so far that hasn't been a problem.

There's not much to say about Hunter's heart, which makes me glad. The heart and lungs are closely related though, oxygen flows between the two so they can affect each other. In Hunter's case, his lungs are having a heck of a hard time, and it is causing some strain on his heart. The lower two ventricles of his heart are dilated. It's not anything they are too concerned about, they're just going to continue to watch it. Somehow this is causing the veins in his lungs to have higher blood pressure than normal. To treat the pulmonary hypertension he is getting an odd treatment - Viagra. Apparently Viagra's original use was to treat pulmonary hypertension and it's side effect became what it is best known for.

Reflux. It sounds like reflux is causing a lot of his problems, he has a pretty severe case. All babies spit up, but Hunter has a problem where he spits up and then inhales the formula and stomach acid into his lungs. They think that this could be causing a majority of his lung problems, too. To treat this they have moved his feeding tube past his stomach directly into his small intestine and he's receiving medication to reduce reflux and lower the potency of his stomach acid.

If this works and his lungs get better then they will know that is what is keeping his lungs from healing. If that's the case they will likely perform a small surgery to insert what they call a G Tube. A G tube is a tube that goes through the belly skin and is attached directly to the small intestine. There are pictures of the procedure all over the Internet, if anybody has a strong enough stomach to look it up.

He would have this procedure if the reflux is the only thing keeping him in the hospital. He would finally be able to come home, but there are many concerns about the procedure too. It would require general anesthesia and Hunter would have to be put back on a ventilator. It sounds like babies that are put on a ventilator for surgery have some trouble coming back off. Being fed through a tube can lead to "oral aversion" where the baby is no longer interested in being fed from a bottle.

There's not much that they can do about Hunter's kidney stones right now. They have ideas of what is causing it, but they can't do the test to be sure. There was a miscommunication between the lab in Chicago and Hunter's hospital. The lab requires 24 hours of urine (no less) to do the test, but a preservative needs to be added. The nurses didn't get the message about the preservative so the urine had to be thrown out. When they tried inserting another catheter his urethra was damaged. A urologist checked him out and said that everything would be fine but not to catheter him for a few weeks. Right now the kidney stones aren't doing any harm, so until he heals up and is ready to test again they are just going to keep an eye on him and make sure he's not in danger. They do have a specialist ready in case Hunter does require immediate treatment for his stones.

Lastly, he had an IV in his hand but it closed up. They tried to do it in his foot but that wouldn't work. Now he has an IV going into his head. Yeah, his head. Nurse says it's one of the best places for an IV even though it doesn't look so good. There are several nice big veins on the scalp and Hunter can't reach up there to pull it out.

Nurse says she thinks Hunter has blue eyes. With the sunlight shining on him in the picture it sure does look that way.

Care Conference

Today's the day. This afternoon we meet with Hunter's doctor and nurses for his care conference. I was starting to worry that it wouldn't happen in time - Hunter's brother and sister come back home tomorrow.

When Hunter first landed in the hospital, his doctor (Dr. Big Words, who we haven't seen in two months now) told us that the first few weeks would be exciting followed by days upon days of boring. Boy was he wrong. We've been fortunate enough to have a boring day here and there, and sometimes even several in a row. There have even been times that I've wondered What am I going to write about? But Hunter always manages to come through with something exciting to share with everyone.

Lately he had visits from an ear/nose/throat doctor and a pulmonologist to check up on his reflux and cloudy lungs. His reflux hasn't gone away, even without the bottle he is still managing to spit up. They are now making it even harder for him to have reflux. He had his reflux medication dosage increased and they moved the feeding tube past his stomach directly into his small intestine.

To save space, here's some other news:
He still has Chronic Lung Disease.
There is no planned time to do the urine test, that may change however.
He has one large stone in his right kidney, many small stones in his left.
I left my camera at home. :(

He's a Cutie

Hunter continues to grow. Last night he was up to 7 lbs, 11 oz. Even though he didn't gain any weight the night before, this gain is big enough to keep him on track for 2 oz per day.

Right now we're in one of those waiting times again. He still has an IV for his antibiotic, Nurse says it could be there for 2-7 days. I'd bet for the lower end since it's only precautionary and he doesn't actually have an infection.

There's no more blood in his pee, hooray! They are going to wait a little while before they try to do the urine collection again.

His oxygen is about the same. He's on 3 liters still, but the oxygen is turned down slightly to 72%. When we came in to visit him he was desaturating (the amount of oxygen in his blood was under 85%). This sets off alarms, which he doesn't like at all. All the babies in the NICU desat all the time so you are always hearing these alarms going off. It's not a big concern though because Hunter always gets himself back into a healthy range.

When Mommy and I were holding him, his respiratory rate and saturation improved again. He was breathing between 40-80 times per minute and he began to high sat (the amount of oxygen in his blood is over 95%). This also sets off an alarm, which he doesn't like at all.

Hunter is very popular in the NICU. Hunter only has one primary night time nurse, so we often have nurses who don't usually work with him. His primary night nurse loves the heck out of him though. Even the nurses who haven't worked with him before know who he is because "He's the baby that Night Nurse carries around and kisses on all the time."

Last night he had a different nurse. His primary night nurse was working, but just had other babies. In the time that we were there she came by three times to check on him and make googley faces at him. He's very lucky to have a great set of nurses who really care for him. I know his day nurses do, too.

Hunter's Hard Day

Yesterday Hunter had one of his hardest days in a while. Starting Sunday they began collecting his urine over a 24 hour period to try and determine the cause of his kidney stones. His catheter came out about half way through so they had to put it back in. And then after the 24 hours were up they sent it down to the lab only to find that they had messed up. They had forgotten to add a preservative to his urine, it was no longer "fresh" and they weren't able to test it.

Hunter now needs to go through another 24 hours of urine collection. They tried to start it yesterday, but something went wrong and he now has blood in his urine again. Nurse says it's most likely the catheter didn't go in right and scraped against his insides somewhere. They cannot collect the urine while there is blood in it, so they have to wait for that to stop and he was given another IV so he could begin receiving antibiotics (so his pee pee doesn't get infected).

He also received an ultrasound yesterday to take a look at the kidney stones, the only results I've heard regarding that is that he definitely has kidney stones. Nobody knows why yet. I did get to speak with Nurse more about the stones and she helped clear it up a bit. It is very rare for a baby to have kidney stones, I must have misunderstood Other Nurse when she said several babies had them. I also asked why they had to call a specialist for advice. She very kindly reminded me that they are a women's hospital, and they don't have specialists for that kind of thing in the building.

Along with all this excitement, Hunter was also moved back onto 3 liters of oxygen flow, and at 80% at that. This is pretty much a step back to the day he was taken off of CPAP.

Time for some good news. I was holding him, rocking with him, and singing to him last night. While I was doing this he was breathing very well. His rate stayed in the 30-60/minute range (good) and his oxygen saturation was up around 95-97% (very good).

What Happened?

Tonight Mommy and I went to visit Hunter and we found this. There was no baby at Station 8. There wasn't a name on the board. There wasn't even a card. Hunter disappeared.

Mommy and I looked at each other and exchanged looks of "What the heck?"

We found a nurse and asked what happened to our baby. We were told that he has a new home now. He has moved from one of the main stations to a private room. How luxurious.

Our nurse didn't explain to us why he was moved, just a mild amusement at the fact that we weren't told about it.

He's getting very big, he's up to 7 and a half pounds. We're ready for him to come home, we just need to wait... and wait... and wait.

No Big Changes

Hunter had an awesome day a few days ago, but since then he seems to just be relaxing.

His oxygen flow is still at 2 liters. That's good. The percentage is still pretty high though, and doesn't seem to be coming down at all. He's still getting around 80%. I don't know how low he will have to get that number before they change him back to 1 liter.

There's still no word on some of the other things happening. We don't know when his care conference will be. We don't know when they will try the bottle again. And we don't yet know what caused the kidney stones. They received the special test they need to do the kidney stone check the other day. Today they will be collecting his urine over 24 hours, then Monday they will test it. We should have the results by the end of the week.

Also, he is still gaining weight. Last night he was up to 7 lbs, 3 oz.

Hunter Makes Big Progress

Ever since Hunter came off of CPAP it seemed that he wasn't really making much progress towards getting better. Today he decided it was finally time to take that first step and I am very proud of him for it. His oxygen has been running at a high pressure (3 liters) ever since they put him back on it. Today they lowered it down to 2 liters and he is doing just fine.

When they turned that down they had to increase his oxygen percentage so he's up to around 75% - I'm sure that will start going down though. Today he spent some more time in his bouncer, he really enjoys that. Here are some random happenings:

Hunter weighs 7 lbs, 2 oz.
Hunter is wearing newborn-size diapers now, no more preemie.
They tried to feed him, but he started desaturating so still no bottle.
He is adorable and the nurses remind us of that every day.

So Much News pt. 2

It was late last night and I was ready for bed, so here's more of "So Much News."

The hospital is planning what they call a "Care Conference" for Hunter. They invite Mommy and I, his primary nurses, doctor, and regular specialists for a meeting to discuss his future at the hospital. When I spoke with Doctor that was how he described it, leaving me wondering "What is the purpose of this?" I was getting concerned that maybe they wanted to gently break some bad news to us, or tell us that he's going to be in the hospital FOREVER!

Later on I called Nurse to get clarification of what it is. She says that it is something they always do when a baby has been in there to his due date (today) and isn't ready to go home. The reason they get everyone together is so everybody can present how they've treated him. We also get the opportunity to ask any questions and have everybody who works with him available to answer. It also gives them the opportunity to discuss how to treat him in the near future. I guess doctors are pretty busy and they don't usually have the chance to all discuss these things together.

Anyway, Nurse says she anticipates this to have a positive turnout. She's been caring for Hunter several days a week since he was born and knows him very well.

So Much News

We already know Hunter has kidney stones. We learned more about it today. While it's normal for kids to have kidney stones it is very rare for baby at Hunter's age to have kidney stones. It's so rare in fact that Doctor, who has treated babies for decades, has never seen a baby his age with kidney stones.

I'm kind of confused, because last night Nurse said that they have several babies in the NICU that have kidney stones. Somehow Hunter's case is special. It sounds like Doctor had no idea how to handle this situation with Hunter. He said that he had to try to get in touch with some kidney stone experts. He talked to a doctor down at Riley Hospital and also one of the leading kidney stone doctors in the country in Chicago.

They had to get a special test from the doctor in Chicago that they are going to use for Hunter. Then they should know what caused it, and how to go about keeping it from happening again. Doctor said that they can usually treat it with medication or an adjusted diet. In rare cases it can require surgery, but we're going to try to avoid that.

Blood Work Again

So we now know that Hunter had kidney stones. That's what caused the blood in his urine the other day. They don't know what caused the kidney stones though so they are going to be doing a variety of tests to see. He will have some blood tests in the morning and they will collect his pee over the next 24 hours.

I was reading online and it sounds like kidney stones are pretty common in preemies, Nurse said that there are at least three other kids in the NICU who also have kidney stones. I don't know much about it, my main concern is whether or not is likely to happen again. Nurse said that she didn't know and that will depend on what caused it.

He is still on the IV and not on formula, but Nurse says that they will change him back over to his formula tomorrow. She also says that they will increase the size of his meal again. He's growing so fast - he doesn't fit into any of his preemie outfits any more. We brought in some bigger ones and Mommy donated his old outfits to the hospital to use for other preemies.

He is actually "due" in two days (Thursday). It's hard to imagine Mommy still being pregnant since Hunter has been with us for nearly three months now.

More Tests

Nurse found some blood in Hunter's urine. This isn't the first time, it happened a long time ago too and got better on it's own.

In the meantime they are taking precautions, he's back on an IV and he had some tummy x-rays. They were looking at his kidneys, but didn't find anything wrong. I don't know what they were looking for, we will get the official results today.

Nurse says that it's very likely that they'll be able to take him off of the IV today. Since they haven't been feeding him he lost a little bit of weight. He's down to 6lbs 15 oz which coincidentally is his brother's birth weight.

Giant Baby!

After a couple days of Hunter's weight not changing he has has several days of huge changes. The last time I posted a few days ago he was 6 and a half pounds, but today he is up to seven pounds. They are working on letting him grow and he sure it taking the opportunity.

Doctor increased his meals over the weekend and he is now getting 50ml over one hour which is a pretty significant change for Hunter.

He is still breathing way too fast to get a bottle. Nurse says they won't even try giving him a bottle if he is breathing over 80 times per minute. He is regularly between 80 and 100 now, but when he's asleep on his belly he drops down to 60. Now we just have to figure out how to give him a bottle while he is asleep on his belly.

There is still no plan of when to start the bottle, I ask every time I talk to a nurse and I always get the same answer, "When he's ready." Today his nurse estimated that he'll probably be in there for another four weeks. Oddly enough, about a week ago another nurse said the same thing. We should all know by now though that the estimations don't mean much because everything can change over a day.

Eat Faster, Hunter

Hunter sure is getting big. Just recently he passed six and a half pounds, a whole four pounds since he was born.

His feedings are still the same size, 45 ml (one and a half ounces) every three hours. There is a good change they made today though. To help with his reflux they've been giving him his meals over two hours, but with only a one hour break between feeding times he wasn't getting a lot of time to digest his food. Today they decreased his time down to one hour. We'll see if he is still able to eat as much food in half of the time without having reflux problems.

I seem to be getting different stories from different nurses regarding when they are going to try a bottle again. His nurse last night said "3 days," his nurse today said "I don't know, he's doing pretty good though," and his night nurse said "Doctor didn't write any plans for that."

Hmmm.... someone's not communicating the news that I want to hear to all of the nurses.

His hair looks darker in the picture than it really is. I notice in the picture it seems to have some red, too. Maybe he got that from Mommy. I'm trying to guess what color his eyes will be. Right now they are gray, but the color should start coming through in the next few months.

Besides all of that, we're just waiting. They haven't been able to wean him off the oxygen at all, but both of his nurses today did say that he is being very happy laying on his belly (he has always preferred that.) Of course we aren't allowed to do that once he gets home, but at the hospital it's okay since he is covered with monitors. They're very cautious about SIDS, they actually had to get a doctor's order to allow him to sleep on his belly since he could breathe easier that way.

Growing Boy

It sounds like Hunter is making some pretty big steps. Yesterday his breathing rate seemed much more stable while I was visiting him. He did some times get over 100 breaths/min but most of the time he seemed to be right where they want him to be (around 70).

Doctor must have noticed this too, because he is now planning on starting bottle feedings in two days. If all goes well with the bottle feedings hopefully we'll be able to take some time off of the four weeks that Nurse estimated the other day.

Hunter's Swallow Study

Yesterday Hunter had his swallow study. The immediate results showed that he did have some trouble eating. They found that he will require very thick formula (about the thickness of honey) once he is able to get back on a bottle.

It's going to be a while before they try to get him on the bottle. Right now he is on a high flow nasal cannula which has a flow of 3 liters. Nurse says that they should get that down to 2 liters before they give the bottle another try. The high flow of his oxygen is blowing air into his belly, if they try to feed him now it will just make the aspirations worse. Then when he is able to take a bottle they will start with very small feedings (5 ml) and increase them over time until they can do a full meal (45 ml) from the bottle.

If this all sounds like it's going to take a while, you are right. Tonight, Nurse estimated that optimistically we should expect Hunter to be in the hospital for at least four more weeks. He's been in the hospital for 11 weeks now, so I guess another four isn't so much.

March of Dimes walk

Hi everybody! It's Caity. I wanted to share with you what me and my friends Erikka & Michael are going to be doing for the March of Dimes this year...

As all of you know my son Hunter was born at 27 weeks gestation, about 3 months too soon. He weighed 2lbs 8oz and 14 inches long. He has been staying in the NICU for the past 2 1/2 months. They do a wonderful job there! Without the help of the neonatologists, nurses, and all the equipment things might not be progressing forward as they are. He is now 2 1/2 months old and is over 6lbs! He also has friend named Lauren who was born at 28 weeks age gestation, she is 9 months old now and growing like a weed! Her mommy and I have been friends for a very long time and have been able to talk to each other about life in the NICU.

There is a wonderful organization called the March of Dimes and they do many wonderful things to help preemies survive. Every year in the Spring they have a walk to raise money and awareness for preemies. I am writing all of you to ask you to join myself, and my wonderful friends Erikka & Michael in the walk for the March of Dimes. The walk will be April 26th at 9:30 am and it will begin at Coveleski Stadium in South Bend. It would be greatly appreciated if we can get an over whelming number of people to join us. However if you are unable to join us in the walk, please make a donation to the March of Dimes in Hunter & Lauren's name. To join us please go to www.MarchforBabies.com and when searching for a team to join, we are TEAM LINSKY.

My personal page to make donations is
http://www.marchforbabies.org/caitys3lilones

Erikka and Michael's personal page is
http://www.marchforbabies.org/emlinsky

Thank you!

High Pressure

We hear from the nurses that Hunter will never ever have to go back on CPAP. That doesn't mean he's out of the woods yet though, they are still concerned about his breathing. Whatever they do, they will be able to keep him on the nasal cannula. Over the weekend they had a special machine on reserve that would allow them to give him higher pressure (like the CPAP) but in a gentle way (like the regular oxygen).

Doctor became concerned about Hunter's fast breathing today and decided to switch him over to the high-volume device. From what I gather from the Doctor has said, CPAP delivered about 5 liters of air. The regular cannula delivers 1 liter, but this new device will allow them to give him 3 liters without having to worry about how it will affect his body. The plan is to work him down from 3 liters.

I'm wondering if they will be able to do the swallow study since that will require Hunter to take a bottle. If his breathing rate doesn't come down I don't know how they'll have him do it. We'll find out more about it tomorrow.

Try it Again

Yay! They took Hunter off of CPAP!

It sounds like everything went very smoothly. Nurse told me that when they first took it off he started breathing fast and they were concerned about that, but after a while he adjusted and started slowing down. When I visited him I noticed that his respiratory rate was still very inconsistent. There would be times that he would have 30 breaths/min and also times that it would jump over 120.

We need him to keep his rate down so they can work on getting him back on a bottle. They can't feed him when he's breathing so fast, just imagine trying to drink while you're take two breaths every second.

He is still scheduled for his swallow test. After they do the test and find out what consistency formula he needs they should be able to use a bottle pretty much every time he eats. Mommy and I are very excited about that, we haven't had the opportunity to feed him yet.

Waiting for Tomorrow

I don't have anything new to report today. We're all just waiting somewhat patiently for tomorrow. In case anybody missed it, tomorrow is the big day that they will try to take him off of CPAP again.

It sounds like they are NOT going to go back to their plan of leaving his oxygen at 100%. Right now he is around 30% and Doctor said that when they take him off CPAP it will likely go up. But he didn't say 100%, so we'll find out what that means tomorrow when they actually do it.

He is scheduled for a swallow test on Monday to determine if he is coordinated enough to eat regular formula. Doctor did say however that if he is acting like he is ready for a bottle they may try to give him one before then anyway.

We're all very eager for him to come home. At the same time though, home is so dangerous. While he is in the hospital he is generally safe from germs and toddler siblings. Once he comes home everything is going to be out to get him. Gavin has a cough that he just can't seem to shake, its been coming and going for at least a month. I know Mommy would be very nervous to have a coughing Gavin anywhere near Hunter. We're working extra-hard to make sure everyone is healthy for whenever they decide to let Hunter go.

There's a Plan

Hunter's weight: 6 lbs, 4 oz.

Hunter has gained 5 oz since the last time I posted. He is getting much bigger, but still seems so small. It's easy to see that he is gaining weight, he is definitely getting chunky. I was poking at his fat little cheeks this evening... he didn't like it much.

He's been doing very good with his CPAP. They've been able to keep his oxygen requirements in the low 30s or high 20s, which is pretty average for him. Doctor thinks that he is doing so well that they will try to take it off again. Right now the plan is to take it off on Friday, then do the swallow test.

Hunter may soon be able to get back on a bottle. His feedings haven't changed in a long time, he is still getting 45 ml over 2 hours. I'm wondering what's going to happen when he does get back on a bottle and he's getting 45 ml over 30 min. I guess we'll see shortly.

Almost Six Pounds

Can you believe it?! As of last night Hunter weights 5 lbs and 15 oz. If he can gain that extra ounce tonight he'll be six pounds.

I was just at the hospital holding him and he doesn't even feel like the baby he was the first time we were able to hold him. I remember the first time holding him he didn't even fit into his preemie outfits. No matter how we held him he would just slide down to the bottom of his outfit and get scrunched into a baby-ball. Today he seems much more solid, even though he is only the size of a small newborn.

There are things we're able to do now that they didn't recommend doing when he was first born. We don't need to be as cautious about touching him. Preemies have sensitive and confused nervous systems and any sort of stroking is irritating or painful. Today I was able to hold his hand and play with his little fingers and he didn't mind one bit.

He's still on CPAP, Doctor says he will probably still be for 5-7 more days. After they take him off CPAP they are going to do another swallow study. Doctor thinks he may have another small problem other than the reflux, he may not have the coordination required to swallow. This can cause some of the formula to enter the lungs in the same way as the reflux. If he does need some help, all they do is thicken his formula until he grows and gains the coordination he requires.

All The Same

There's not much new going on with Hunter these past few days. He is still on CPAP, still NOT getting a bottle, and still not at home with us.

The nurses and doctors never don't very positive about the CPAP, they always comment on how they want to see him off of it. They just don't feel that he's ready for it right now. Last night when I was talking to Nurse she told me what their concerns are. Hunter does just fine while he's on CPAP, but when he comes off he ends up using so many calories trying to breathe. They think that if they take him off CPAP he will end up losing weight since it's hard work for him to breathe.

It's been ten weeks now since Hunter has been born, and he has yet to come home. It's odd not having a member of our family ever be at home with us. Several weeks ago we could go visit him every day, but now with the kids home and a job taking up most of the day it's become much more difficult.

He needs to come home.

Getting Bigger

Not too much happening with Hunter. Over the weekend he has just been working on gaining weight, and boy had he been doing that. He was weighed tonight and he is up to a huge 5 lbs, 11.5 oz. He's getting so big, I'll be its because they've increased his meals quite a bit. He was at 40ml for a long time, but just a few days ago it was increased to 45ml.

Nurse made it sound like it may be on CPAP for a while longer. It depends on who his doctor is since they make the end decision. It's possible they may take him off as soon as tomorrow, but even when I was visiting him his O2 requirements were pretty high. His oxygen was up to 35% and he was still desaturating. Unless his requirements go down fast I don't think they'll be doing much.

He's Trying So Hard

Since they found out yesterday that Hunter has reflux they know how to treat him. The plan was to start him on his medication and remove CPAP at least 24 hours later. I guess they got a little eager, or maybe just wanted to do it while the doctors were all there, but they took CPAP off earlier today (hooray!).

Fast forward a little while and Hunter start breathing very heavy. Doctor decides that this is no good so guess what - Hunter goes back on CPAP. This is his fourth time on CPAP, and his oxygen requirements have been fluctuating between 60% and 30%. He's had a pretty rough day, because of this he has lost a little bit of weight (only 15 grams) and his O2 requirements are a little high.

They don't have any plans of trying to take him off of CPAP again yet, I bet he won't be on it very long though. I have a feeling that once the medicine kicks in and his lungs clear up more he will be done. It's a bummer that he had to come back to CPAP again, but I kind of expected it. We were pretty surprised to hear that they took it off so soon.

Reflux

Hunter had his Upper G.I. test today to determine whether or not he had reflux. Nobody is surprised by the results, yes he does have reflux.

It's good that they figured this out, because CPAP doesn't treat this, fortunately they have medicine that does. They started him on the medicine today and if he stops breathing so hard they may remove him from CPAP as early as tomorrow.

It's very likely that Hunter will come home with this reflux medication. It also sounds very likely that he will come home with oxygen. We can handle that though, at least he will be able to come home. Doctor said that sometimes babies only need oxygen and medicine for a month or two, but other times it can go on for a long time. They don't answer anything absolutely, its always "it depends".

In the case that Hunter does come home on oxygen they want us to be ready for it. To help parents adjust they want Mommys and Daddys to spend the night in the hospital once with their baby. There are small bedrooms in the NICU where we would get to spend time with Hunter without nurses and doctors always walking around, but they would be right outside the door just in case we needed them.

It sounds like everyone is eager for Hunter to come home, now we should be able to count his time left in weeks instead of months.

Happy Hunter

Hunter's Weight: 5 lbs, 7 oz.

Hunter's nurses have noticed that he seems to be getting bored with his crib. Yesterday Nurse suggested that we should bring in a bouncer seat for him. Now he can sit up and look around, and that's exactly what he is doing. He was more active today than I remember seeing him before. He was sitting in his bouncer and looking all over the place while swinging his hands back and forth.

He is still on CPAP, the pictures from yesterday were taken when they were cleaning him. Yesterday they had disconnected him from everything for a short time, no CPAP, feeding tube, or chest sensors. After being off of CPAP for a few minutes his saturation went way down and they had to hurry to get it back on.

Tomorrow they will have to remove the CPAP for a little while because they are going to do his swallow test. They need to determine if he can eat properly, but he can't eat with all that air blowing down his nose. Nurse said that if it turns out that it is a reflux problem he will likely be coming off of CPAP soon and will just be treated by medication. She also said that most babies have reflux and that he should be much better by the time he comes home.

Photo Update

Hunter weighs 5 lbs, 4.5 oz.

Not a lot of other new news for today so I'm going to share some pictures.

Doctor Explains It

Hunter's Weight: 5 lbs, 4 oz.

Today I was able to talk to Doctor and he explained everything that happened and why he chose to put Hunter back on CPAP. Here's what he said.

The night before he was returned to CPAP the nurse had reported that he was breathing hard. Then the following day he didn't show any interest in eating. When they would try to feed him he would spit it up. Nurse told his doctor about this and they decided to put him on CPAP. At the same time, Doctor ordered an x-ray of his chest. After looking at the x-ray they found that his lungs were cloudy again (like pneumonia) so Doctor did a blood test to make sure everything was okay. The blood test showed no infection (whew, thats a relief) and they figure that he is doing the "silent reflux" i wrote about a while ago where he spits up and then inhales it into his lungs. All of that liquid can collapse parts of his lungs so the CPAP just helps keep his lungs open until they can remedy the situation.

Doctor said they are going to do some fancy tests to determine how coordinated his throat is and decide how severe his reflux is. A difficult part of this test is that he has to be able to eat from a bottle to do the test. But he cannot take a botle while on CPAP. But the CPAP is what is keeping this from getting worse. It's a difficult circle, I'm just glad I'm not a doctor who has to figure all of this out.

Doesn't Seem Right

Take a good look at the picture. Something just doesn't seem right. Maybe something is missing. Maybe something is there that isn't supposed to be.

Have you found it yet?

If you guessed "Hunter is on CPAP again" you are correct.

His nurse today noticed that his saturation was not so good, and it really dropped after feeding him. So after his meal today she talked to Doctor and they decided that it would be best for Hunter to go on CPAP again. This is his third time. It doesn't sound like he was in an awful condition that forced him back onto CPAP, only that he was getting tired again.

Since we weren't able to go in to visit him for quite a while we missed the entire time he was off of CPAP. He seemed very excited to have us back, I noticed him squirm when he heard my voice, and Nurse said he did the same thing for Mommy.

Because he's back on CPAP now he won't be getting any more bottles. Mommy and I were really looking forward to feeding him sometime, but now it looks like we're going to have to wait a few more days.

Hunter is So Cute, or So I Hear

Hunter's nurse says that he is getting so darn cute. I have to take her word for it, we've not been able to visit him for a week now. Everybody is feeling better today though so our plan is to visit Mr. Hunter tomorrow. We've been missing him very much, but it's better that we stay away and not take the chance of getting him sick. He is finally making progress everywhere and we would not want to risk that.

Nurse weighed him tonight and was able to give me some VERY exciting news. Hunter weighs five pounds now. Yep, five whole pounds. He is now officially double his birth weight. She also said that she gave him a bottle already tonight and he took nearly half of it.

Today Hunter's corrected age is 36 weeks. That means that he could be born any time over the next four weeks.

He also had his x-ray today and they saw that his lungs were clearing up with the medication that he is already on. So for now they aren't changing him over to any reflux medicine.

Go Hunter!

A Little More Information

We haven't heard of many changes with Hunter today, but I did manage to get a little more information about the tests they are planning for him.

Tomorrow he will be receiving another x-ray to see if the medication he's on is helping clear out his lungs. If it is still cloudy after his x-ray they will put him on Prilosec to help with his reflux. I didn't understand how reflux could cause cloudy lungs, but Nurse was kind enough to explain it to me.

Almost all babies have some kind of reflux, most babies just spit up. Some babies have a kind of reflux they call "silent reflux" where the baby has reflux but doesn't actually spit up. What they think may be happening with Hunter is that he is spitting up but the milk isn't coming out. Instead, he is inhaling it and getting it into his lungs. This can cause the cloudiness and symptoms similar to pneumonia even though there is no infection.

He is still eating well from his bottle. Today Doctor increased his meals to 40 ml, and today he took 30 ml through the bottle before giving up. It sounds like everything is going pretty well with Hunter. He just has a few hurdles to overcome before we can start thinking about when we can bring him home (it's not far off, though).

Feeding Adventures

Hunter's Weight: 4 lbs, 13 oz

Hunter is so awesome. He took his entire meal by bottle tonight. They didn't have to put any of it down his tube.

This is very good news. Yesterday we heard from Nurse that Hunter has been having some problems while eating. It sounds like he's choking a little bit while they're feeding him. Nurse says that it's likely reflux and they will get him some Prilosec to help reduce any reflux and help him eat better. She said even today when he took his entire bottle he still choked a little bit.

Reflux in preemies isn't a big deal and they usually grow out of it. I asked Nurse if it was anything to be concerned about. Her answer was no, but they think it may be some other things that they are going to test for. She didn't go into detail about the tests, I'll try to find information about those over the next few days.

Too Much News

We haven't been able to see Hunter since last Friday morning. Over the last few days everybody has been getting the flu, one at a time. So now we aren't allowed back in the NICU until Thursday. That's going to be nearly a week without seeing Hunter.

We have been in contact with his nurses though, so at least we're able to keep up to date on how he's doing. A few hours after we left on Friday they did take him off of CPAP and we're hoping that he is done with it forever. He also had his first bottle that same day. He did very well with the bottle, he took half of his meal through the bottle and had to have the rest of it down the tube.

When he came off of CPAP they had him at a high pressure. Usually they try to wean the pressure down before they take babies off of CPAP. Hunter had some trouble adjusting to the lower pressure of being on only oxygen. Doctor said that his oxygen requirements were still fluctuating too much. To help him adjust to the pressure change they doubled the pressure of his oxygen, but it's not healthy to do that for too long so they only did that for 24 hours.

Now they're trying something completely different, they are keeping his oxygen flow at 100% and they are going to try to wean the pressure down to a point where they can hopefully take it off. In the case that they can't take it off at least they'll be able to send him home with oxygen and an idea of how much his body requires. As of last night they are a little concerned because the oxygen in his body is still dropping at times and that should not be happening when he's receiving full oxygen.

Doctor ordered an x-ray of his chest and they found that his lungs are still cloudy. That means there is still some extra fluid in there that is probably making it harder for him to breathe efficiently. I think they're going to give him a medication for that but in case it doesn't help they do have some other ideas.

Coming Off CPAP Soon

Earlier today when I spoke with Hunter's nurse she said they may possible take him off of CPAP today. It sounds like Doctor thinks he is doing very well and he has gained enough weight (four 1/2 pounds) to warrant coming off of CPAP. She asked for Nurse's advice, but Nurse thought it would be best to wait another day. She suggested waiting because Hunter still requires different oxygen depending on whether he is on his back or his belly. When we visited later in the day we got an update from Nurse and she said that she expects him to come off CPAP tomorrow.

Mommy and I can't wait to feed him, he hasn't had a single bottle yet. If all goes well they could start practicing bottles within a day of coming off CPAP.

Hunter Must Be Hungry

Hunter's doing well again. They haven't weighed him yet today (they usually do that at night) but I'll bet he gained weight again. Doctor seems to think that since he's been doing well over the past few days they might as well go for broke, she increased his feedings 2 more ml up to 36 ml. It's getting to a point where he can hardly fit a whole meal in his belly. They must really want him to gain a lot of weight. It's difficult to imagine that by the time he comes home he should be eating double what he's eating now.

On the topic of coming home, Nurse was talking about that today. It's not going to happen any time soon though. She was estimating that if everything goes well he should be home in under four weeks. The time is ticking down fast, four weeks doesn't seem that far away. She started telling us about some of the things we have to be prepared for when he comes home. I'm sure we'll be hearing much more about that as the weeks pass by, but for now it sounds like we still have a lot of preparing to do.

Hunter is still on CPAP and still in his isolette. Doctor made it sound that if he keeps gaining weight she will try him off CPAP again in a few days. Come on Hunter, I know you can do it!

Hunter is Packing on the Ounces

It seems that Hunter is finally starting to realize that he is eating as much food as his body can handle. Yesterday he gained nearly four ounces and today he gained another two. Mommy and I just got back from visiting him and he weighed an even 2 kg, or 4 lbs and 6 oz.

Hunter is still doing well with CPAP on, even when we held him they were able to keep him around 30% oxygen. He definitely enjoyed being held by Mommy more, he saturated a lot better with her. Mommy enjoyed that, now she has a little Momma's Boy.

Everything seems to be working well so they haven't been making any changes. While Nurse was feeding him tonight he opened his eyes the widest I have ever seen. He was looking around and checking everything out. When the other nurses (who have worked with him often) heard that he was looking around they all came over to see how cute he is. There were at least two other nurses who left their stations to watch him being adorable.

Get Bigger Fast, Hunter

Hunter needs to grow. Doctor says so. Hunter is already filling his belly and receiving the maximum amount of calories his belly can handle. With all of this he is still not gaining weight as consistently as Doctor thinks he should.

The next thing they're going to try is the same thing they are already doing, isn't that convenient. The new plan is to keep Hunter from burning calories. In order to do this they are going to leave him in the incubator so he won't have to keep his temperature on his own. They are also going to leave him on CPAP for a while so he can save calories that way, too.

Today when we arrived to visit Hunter, Nurse was feeding him through his feeding tube. While she was feeding him he was sucking on his pacifier. I think she was trying to help him make the connection between sucking and being fed. It is developmentally time for him to start eating from a bottle, but they won't be able to do it until he is off of CPAP.

Hunter is STILL on CPAP

Hunter is still on CPAP. Everybody wants him to be done with it. Mommy and I are eager for him to get off so he can get back into a regular bed. The nurses want him to be done with it. Even Hunter himself is ready to be off of CPAP.

Today while Mommy and I were visiting Hunter he turned his head and pulled it back so he could pull the prongs out of his nose. I think he did it on purpose, nurse doesn't agree. He managed to pull one of them out, and fell asleep satisfied with only one prong. He was doing fine on his oxygen with only one prong but I ratted him out to the nurse anyway. She woke him up and fixed his CPAP, but as soon as she walked away he did it again. He pulled his head back and pushed it out again using his pacifier. I ratted him out again, and she fixed it again. I think this means that he is done, but Nurse thinks that he still isn't stable enough... so we're still waiting.

They increased his food a tiny bit, only one ml so he's up to 34 ml. His weight isn't changing though, still 4 lbs.

Hunter's Getting So Big

Lately it seems that Hunter has been getting nurses and doctors that haven't worked with him before. It also seems that these nurses and doctors don't have as much to say since they don't have any history with him. Today Hunter had all new nurses and doctors, so not much happened.

One exciting milestone was hit today, he reached four pounds. Hooray Hunter, you're getting so big!

Missed A Day

Here's little Hunter on his CPAP. He's doing pretty well with it but his oxygen requirements are still fluctuating. We visited late last night and spoke with Night Nurse, she had been working on turning it down a little bit at a time. When we left he was in the low 30s which isn't too bad.

I asked Night Nurse when they would be able to take it off. She said that there are no plans at the time so it could still be a little while. Besides being on CPAP he is a very healthy boy. Nurse made sure to point out that he has done very well with everything, except his lungs. They think that the pneumonia and chronic lung disease are the only reason that he had to take the step back, but that will all get better with time.

He's closing in on the four-pound mark. His weight has been floating around a few ounces short of four pounds. They've increased his meals a tiny bit to help him gain more weight, but they're hesitant to do too much since a full belly makes it harder for him to fill his lungs.

Hunter's Quick Recovery

Hunter seems much healthier today. He is still on CPAP and he is still in his isolette, but he seems very comfortable. They still haven't found any infections, Doctor is betting that Hunter just wore himself out. It sounds like they are going to leave him on CPAP for a few more days before trying to take it off again.

There aren't many changes. Because of his move back to CPAP they haven't increased the amount of food that they give him and they can't add any more calories. They did give him that blood transfusion they had been talking about. They had to take an awful lot of blood to do the blood culture and the complete blood test. I think that's the only reason they had to do the transfusion. The tests before that showed that he has been producing enough on his own to stay healthy. Either way though, he seems a lot happier now that he has richer blood.

I don't think Hunter likes being on the CPAP at all. Today while we were visiting he grabbed onto it and pulled it right off - his velcro mustache and all. I noticed his oxygen saturation going way down so I went to check on him and he had moved the whole thing from under his nose up onto the bridge of his nose. He's a strong little boy.

We Should've Known

Hunter looks like an alien baby today.

Hunter's Weight: 3 lbs, 14 oz.
Hunter's been doing very well and continuing to get better every day. All of this hard work must have left him exhausted. Today he just couldn't seem to keep his breathing stable. While we were visiting today we saw his respiratory rate jumping from 30/min up to 150/min in a matter of seconds, 50-70 is what they want. He was also having trouble keeping his oxygen stable, they want his oxygen saturation above 80% but he was consistently dropping into the 60s and 50s. On the opposite end his oxygen requirements were jumping all the way up to 70% which is way over room air (room air is 21% oxygen).

When Doctor saw all of this happening he decided it was time to jump in. They moved Hunter back onto CPAP to give his lungs some rest, and also did some blood tests to make sure he didn't have another infection. The immediate results showed everything being normal, but it will still be a day or two before we know for sure if he has an infection.

After they put him on CPAP his breathing improved immediately. He was no longer desaturating (in fact it was getting too high), and his requirements dropped from 70% all the way down to 30%. As a part of being on CPAP he had to be moved back into his isolette, so he's back in his box again. It's only a small step back, we're hoping he just needed some rest and this isn't being caused by an infection.

Chronic Lung Disease Strikes Again

Don't let the subject fool you, Hunter is doing very well. He is eating well and gaining weight. He is recovering from his jaundice (it's a long treatment), and is generally doing fine. However, Doctor is becoming a little concerned that his oxygen requirement has stayed too high for too long.

While we were visiting today they had his oxygen level between 50 and 60 percent, which is nearly three times normal room air. On top of that, any activity seems to raise his requirements. When they feed him, or change his diaper, or hold him, they've found that they have to turn his oxygen up to keep him at a good saturation.

Doctor ordered Hunter an x-ray and found that his lungs are a little hazy again. He says that this means that there is some fluid in his lungs again, but not pneumonia. As a first step they are giving him a medicine that will help him pee more and hopefully get any extra fluid out of his body. This will take 48 hours to take effect so we'll find out how he's doing in a few days.

Mommy and I can't help but be afraid that this could turn out to be something bad again. Nurse said it isn't anything to worry about, but her tone of voice made it sound as though we shouldn't let our guard down. For the next to days we're going to wait (as patiently as we can) to see how he responds to the treatment.

Hunter Leaves His Incubator

Today was an absolutely wonderful day for our little Hunter. I guess technically it was last night, but we didn't see until today so I'm going to say today. Hunter was moved out of his isolette and into a regular baby crib! Now we can walk right up to him, see him, touch him, and pick him up without asking the nurse to get him out of his bed.

Nurse said that last night shortly after we left they took his temperature and it was a little bit high (not like a fever though). His incubator had already been set at the lowest temperature so they decided to try him without it. So far he is doing wonderful in there, it's so different being able to just reach out and hold his little hands. Oh those little hands, they are so adorable and cause so much trouble. He likes to sneak his fingers up around his cannula and pull it right out of his nose. I had to yell at him several times while we were there earlier today, "Hunter! That's a no-no!"

To make sure that he's able to keep his weight up they are adding 30 calories to each meal now. Doctor says thats the maximum they can do, and rarely go above 27. He increased it a little bit since Hunter's weight gain seems to have hit a plateau right over the 3 1/2 lb mark. Last I heard he was at 3 lbs, 13 oz.

Doctor who saw him today hasn't seen him in three weeks, so he was pleasantly surprised to see how much he has changed over this time. Around the last time he had Hunter we were talking a lot about Chronic Lung Disease, so I figured I'd ask him for an update. Doctor says he thinks Hunter will have a "mild to moderate" case, and he should have no trouble getting through it.

Hunter's Neighbors Go Home

Mommy and I went to visit Hunter today, as usual. And we both had the opportunity to hold him, as usual. He did pretty well with Mommy but did not seem very interested in siting with me. When it was my turn to hold him he kept dropping his oxygen and heart rate, so after a little while I had to put him back in his bed. Once he was back in his bed he was happy again.

Doctor is still talking about starting him on the bottle, the only thing holding him back is that he is breathing a little bit too fast. Nurse said the same thing, she feels that he's almost ready since he seems so coordinated with his pacifier.

A few days ago I wrote that Hunter's baby neighbors were getting ready to go home. One of them was able to leave yesterday, and his other neighbor was able to leave today. The parents sure seemed happy to be able to finally bring their baby home. Now Hunter is the last baby in his area, but I'm sure new babies will be coming in soon and he'll be making new friends.

Hunter Likes the Colts

When we went to visit Hunter today we noticed that they had put him on blankets covered with the logo for the Indianapolis Colts. Mommy was very quick to point it out, as she is very tired of hearing about them all the time. I guess that little Hunter wanted to pick a little bit at Mommy and remind us that even though he's in the hospital he can still make Mommy growl.

Hunter still hasn't been having many changes. His feedings have finally begun increasing again, he's now getting 32 ml. He is also gaining weight again. After a few days of small decreases he is back slightly above his old weight at 3 lbs 11.5 oz.

We got to spend some time talking to Nurse today, she says that she very soon expects the doctors to say they can begin the bottle whenever they think he's ready. Today's nurse told us that if it were up to her she would wait a while longer, about a week. She made a very good point when she said that "he's not even supposed to be out yet." She is admittedly conservative though, I think some of his other nurses might push to try it a bit sooner.

With all of the excitement of coming off of CPAP I think I forgot to write that they are no longer doing regular blood tests on Hunter. At one point they were doing at least 4 a day, then they dropped down to one per shift, then one per day, and now - none. I'm sure Hunter is happy about that, his little foot has done it's fair share of bleeding by now. Hunter is supposed to be getting one more blood transfusion in a few days, Nurse says it's likely to be his last one.

Boring Day

Today has definitely been one of Hunter's boring days. But remember, boring is good.

Hunter is still breathing without the help of CPAP. Nurse reminded us today that it's very possible that he may have to go back on CPAP, many babies do. The way she said it made it sound as if she knew he was on the way back to CPAP and wanted us to be prepared. While we visited today his oxygen was dropping down quite a bit. Hopefully he'll be able to keep his oxygen up overnight and convince the nurses and doctors to keep him off of CPAP.

Because of his varying oxygen requirements there weren't many other changes. They have been talking about trying him with a bottle and moving him to a crib. They didn't do either of these today though because of his oxygen issues, maybe in a few more days.

He lost some weight again, Nurse said it wasn't more than an ounce. His weight has been going down lately, but they aren't too concerned. Nurse said it may just be some swelling going down. His feeding size hasn't changed, but they did increase his calories again. His calories were at 24, they are now at 27, and they can do a maximum of 30. Nurse says this should help him gain weight real good.

Oh, and Mommy got a haircut, it's sassy.

It's totally up to Hunter now

What is totally up to Hunter now you ask? Well, it's his breathing! That's right, earlier today the nurses and the doctors decided that he was doing well enough to be moved from CPAP to the nasal cannula! He is doing just as fine on the nasal cannula as he was on CPAP. Also, now that he isn't on the CPAP anymore, that means his little face won't be scrunched up like a little bulldog anymore!

He is also getting another eye exam today to check to see if he is getting ROP. Hopefully that will come back fine, we'll know by later today what the results of the exam were.

I know I wrote this last time, and Bobby didn't write anything, but Bobby will get on a little later to post an update for the results of the eye exam and what not!

Bobby's Update:
Hunter made it through the entire day without having to go back to CPAP. Doctor did say, however, that it is very possible he may tire out and have to return to CPAP for a short time.

If Hunter is able to make it a few days without going back to CPAP they are going to try to start feeding him with a bottle. Babies typically are ready for a bottle at 34 weeks, Hunter just turned 33. His doctor says that sometimes babies are ready to take a bottle at 33 weeks and that Hunter may be since he has been doing so well with his pacifier.

His eye exam came out fine again this time. He had one a week ago that also came out fine, he doesn't have to see the ophthalmologist again for another two weeks now. The picture is a little dark today because they had to dilate his eyes for the exam and I didn't want to bother him with a flash or by opening up his bed to the light. I think he's smiling at me.

Also, his nurse tonight said she might put Hunter into a crib! She said that he is old enough & big enough to make the transition. She said if he doesn't get too fussy she'll do it tonight, if he does get fussy they'll probably do it tomorrow! Yay for Hunter!

Almost Done with CPAP?

Good news. It sounds like Hunter will be coming off of CPAP soon. He's been making good progress while on it. His oxygen has stayed in a good range and they've been able to turn the CPAP down to a point where it's ready to come off. Today we got to talk to his respiratory therapist, she said that they usually don't turn it down any further than he is right now. The word on the street is that they may try to pull it off on Friday.

He has been creeping his feedings up a few ml every day and today he finally hit 30 ml (one whole ounce). He is now half way to a full-term newborns meal. I don't know how they will ever get him up to two ounces, the milk they give him now seems like so much compared to his little body. It's hard to believe that it all fits in his belly, but I've watched them do it so I know that it does.

Yesterday Doctor mentioned that his weight had gone up a lot, but I forgot to ask how much. Today I remembered to ask Nurse about that and she said that he is at 3 lbs, 11 oz. I guess that if he did go up yesterday he made sure to come back down, because this is about where his weight has been lately.

Lastly, if you look at today's picture and pay special attention to the arm he is holding up you may notice that something is missing. What could it be?... You guessed it, they removed his PICC line yesterday. We already knew they were going to do it, but they didn't pull it until after we left yesterday so today was our first time seeing it. Hunter is needle-free.

No More Needles

Hunter is still making wonderful progress. It's been great to be able to have so many days with good news to share.

It looks like a lot of his baby neighbors are getting ready to go home. Some of his friends who have been in the NICU with him since he was born have car seats waiting for them and will be leaving soon. I'm happy to see other babies being able to go home, it definitely makes us feel a bit more anxious to be able to take Hunter home. It seems that every time we see a baby leave either Mommy or I comment on how someday it will be us with the car seat.

Hunter is doing very well on CPAP. He has been able to keep his oxygen well under 30%, this makes his doctor think that he will be ready to come off soon. We spoke with Doctor today and he said that they may try to make the transition off of CPAP towards the end of the week. I'm sure Hunter is eager for that. His nurses have all said that most babies dislike CPAP, but I'd bet that it's not as bad as being on that ventilator or oscillator that he was on for so long.

He is also eating very well. They didn't make any changes to his food today, he is still at 28 ml every three hours. His meals are creeping their way up to the one ounce mark. Doctor ordered his milk to be fortified with extra calories to help him gain more weight. He said the reason he didn't make any changes today is due to his weight going way up overnight. I forgot to ask what his weight is right now (I'll save that for tomorrow) but I figure that means that whatever they're doing is working.

Doctor took Hunter off of TPN yesterday but left the PICC in his arm with plans of taking it out a while later. He was originally planning on doing it tomorrow morning but there's a potential problem with PICC lines that can and did show up. When a PICC line is empty there is a chance of it closing up, and guess what, that's exactly what it did. Since it was of no use any more they said they were going to remove it today. That means that Hunter has no more needles sticking into him!

Daddy Holds Hunter

I got to hold Hunter today. He feels so much smaller than he looks. It was wonderful, he spent the whole time making silly faces and sticking his tongue at me. Nurse had him wrapped in several blankets which together are probably as big as he is.

Hunter is doing very well. Doctor said that we are getting to the point where there shouldn't be much happening on a daily basis. There will hopefully be many boring days ahead. Even though Doctor thinks upcoming days will be boring, there are still many milestones that Mommy and I are looking forward to.

For example, today Hunter's TPN expired. Hunter has been on TPN since birth, but at 4 p.m. it officially expired so they took it off. This is a big milestone because it means that he is getting all of his nutrition from the milk. If he can keep getting his nutrition from milk they will be able to remove his PICC line in a day or two. Once the PICC comes out he will have no more needles.

Also on the topic of milk, they have begun fortifying his milk with calcium and other vitamins. Doctor says they need to do this because babies normally develop their bones during the third trimester and Hunter is missing out on this. A few days ago Doctor explained how fragile Hunter's bones are, apparently it's not uncommon to find preemies with fractured bones caused by their regular care.

He is also doing very well on CPAP. He has adjusted to it and his oxygen requirements have come way down. When Mommy and I got to the hospital today his oxygen was turned to only 23% (only 2% over regular air). Over this last week Hunter has made so many huge changes he seems like a completely different little boy. He still has big milestones ahead though.

Holding Hunter

After anxiously waiting for a month, the day that I would be able to hold Hunter finally arrived. It was a very wonderful experience. Even though I had held Alyssa & Gavin as babies, holding Hunter was a whole new encounter. When you look at him while he is in the incubator, he looks big. Not huge by any means, but big enough to look like he is running out of space in there. When you hold him though, you really realize how tiny & lightweight he really is.

On other news, he is up to 26ml on his feedings. He has been on a steady increase for the last week. The doctor has also mentioned eliminating his TPN and eventually removing his PICC line. Even when they stop his TPN they will keep the PICC line in for a little while in case they would need it again. They usually will run just a sugar solution through it for a couple days to keep it open.

All in all Hunter has had a pretty good week. The doctor that he had this week made it her mission to get him caught up to where she thought he should be at this point and he was more than willing to cooperate. I just hope that things continue to progress forward for him. He is a strong little man.