Updates: January 15th - 13 days old

Mario had a fairly good day today. He continues to have issues with reflux related apnea and bradycardia episodes, but he only had 2 charted today (as of when we left the hospital this evening) and the rest were self-stims. We spoke with the resident at length on the phone today and she, again, reassured us that this is all to be expected at this stage of things. They are still taking the watch and wait approach and think he will just grow out of it. She said it could be a few days or a week or so, but we all agreed that medication is a last resort and we'll just keep an eye on things for now. His feeds remain at 35mL/feeding of the BM 24 and that is still given over an hour via the pump. His bed is elevated quite a bit to keep him in more of an upright position due to his reflux. Overall, both Dom and I think he was doing much better today than he was yesterday. He was awake more and just seemed to feel a little better.

He continues to maintain his body temperature well in the open crib. In fact, they kept having to remove layers because he was getting too warm. I think he takes after his daddy in that regard. His skin is getting pretty dry, which isn't anything major, so we're putting lotion on him now to help with that. He still has his cord, but it is hanging on by a thread and I don't think it will be much more than a day or two before it falls off. Then we can actually bathe him instead of just giving him the wipe downs/sponge baths.

Of course, we continue to be very active in his care. Tonight he weighed in at 4lbs, 7.4oz. . .a gain of 1.6oz since yesterday. He is also doing very well with the breastfeeding. I increased the time to 15 minutes tonight and he was not too happy when I made him stop. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet with the lactation consultant today, but I hope to speak with her tomorrow.

The little man was being quite a stinker today. This afternoon he decided he'd had enough of his feeding tube and pulled it out. He had been pulling at it and at the tape on his cheek. They have had to replace the tape several times, and today he got a new feeding tube. The nurse put it in the other nostril, just to give the one side a break.

We also found a mobile, supplied by the NICU, to put on his crib. He really likes the music and it helps soothe him. We also found out that they have pillow speakers we can put in his crib if we want to bring in music for him. So, we'll work on putting a song selection together over the next few days.

I have set up daily meetings with the resident to discuss his progress. I had kept missing her, usually she was leaving a message on the home voice mail while I was en route to the hospital. I have several questions for her that hopefully I'll be able to get answered in our daily meetings. Trading voice mails just didn't make for good conversation about Mario's care and my questions and concerns.