Updates: January 22nd - 20 days old

Today we continued to work with the bottle feeding skills. He even took his entire bottle at the 6pm feeding in about 18 minutes! Some feeds he is very interested in the bottle, others he isn't. It's just a matter of time now and it's all up to little Mario at this point. I did breastfeed him at the noon feeding and I can tell he still prefers that to the bottle.

I spoke with several people regarding the next steps in his care today. His main resident was off over the weekend and I hadn't spoken with her for a few days. She was back in today and we chatted for quite a while both this morning and this evening (tonight is her long night, she's on duty through tomorrow morning). She is very pleased with his progress (we were just starting to bottle feed when she was last in and she's impressed that he's taking at least one full bottle a day). She even commented on how different he looks and she can tell he's really filling out in his face. At this point, she didn't change anything. But, we did talk about all of the final steps for Mario. Tomorrow in rounds she is going to ask the attending about changing him from the feeding pump back to gravity feeds through the tube for whatever he doesn't nipple feed. So, we'll see when that happens. She also made the prediction that we'd be there 2 more weeks, max and she thinks that by the end of this week we'll be talking about his hepatitis B vaccine, his circumcision, and the car seat challenge and rooming in. So, we're hopeful that she's on target and this time next week we'll be on our way and talking about a discharge date. Of course, we don't say that too loud and don't get too hopeful, because we know things are always subject to change. As one of the nurses put it, don't believe it until you see the hospital in your rearview mirror and the baby in the back seat.

I also spoke with his developmental therapist today. She went over everything she has been working with and evaluating him on (range of motion, tone, nippling, etc). We also went over things that happen in that area when we go home. At 6 months adjusted age, which is time from his due date, we'll have to bring him back in to be evaluated by a developmental therapist, physical therapist, and speech therapist. They basically just play with him for a bit and then talk to us about if he's where he needs to be and if not what we need to do to help him out.

His weight was up yet again today. Now he weighs 5lbs, 1.2oz, just under a 2oz gain from last night's weigh in. He definitely has the weight gain thing mastered. Must be all that good breastmilk he's getting from mommy :)

As you can see, today was a very positive day for little Mario. We're heading in the right direction. Even some of the nurses who haven't seen him for several days due to not working have commented on how different he's looking and how well he's doing. It won't be long now!