Joel - 4 weeks, 4 days

Today was Nana's last day visiting. Joel had a busy weekend with lots of visits, and I think he enjoyed the attention! Since Nana and Jake had a final visit this morning and I went this afternoon, we decided to let Joel rest this evening. He needs to keep growing! He gained another 10 grams today, so he is 1,035 grams now. Keep up the good work, Joel!

The doctors think he has been consistently handling his feedings, so tonight they moved him to bolus feeds. He'll get feedings in bunches instead of continuous feeds. They start out pretty small, feeding a little bit of food over a 30-45 minute period, 8 times a day. As he tolerates it, they'll increase each feeding by 1mL each feeding. That's a big transition! A lot of preemies have some level of reflux, so they take it pretty slowly. The beds are at a slight incline to help food stay where it's supposed to, but we'll have to wait and see how he does. This is the first step before they'll try bottle feeds, which he'll need to master before he comes home. He's 34 weeks GA tomorrow, and that's when a lot of preemies start showing the "rooting" reflex. He's started enjoying his pacifier more, so he's doing well practicing. Once he starts really exhibiting that, tolerating the bolus feeds, and maybe waking up on his own for his feedings, the bottles will be incorporated one at a time.

He's still up to 0.5L-0.6L airflow today. I noticed again today how much quieter it is than the 6L flow he used to be on and thought how much more comfortable it must be. He's still so much happier!

In recent pictures, you can really tell how big some of the outfits they have are for him. It depends what's clean and available, but he sometimes ends up in "newborn" size instead of "preemie" size. He really swims in these...the neck fits over his shoulders, and he can wiggle out the top. We have to roll the sleeves so many times just to see his fingers that he can't really find his face with his hands-it's like having big intertubes on his wrists with all the rolling. That's why we decided to donate a couple of his tiniest preemie onesies to the hospital. We are not allowed to bring in our own clothes for him to wear since they have to be laundered by the hospital. So, we donated them. 3 cute little outfits that might actually look like they belong on him. He still has some growing to do before he fits the rest of his preemie clothes, and we didn't want to donate all of them, but he will hopefully outgrow these smallest ones before he's home...and we all now how awful hospital issued gear can be! This boy is going to have some style (in 4-5 days, after the clothes get back from laundry!!)

Daddy and Joel

Getting a head ultrasound...he aced it!

Nana and Joel