Joel - 9 weeks, 1 day

Joel had another bumpy day today. Although nobody is quite sure exactly what the cause is, it is assumed to be related to the bolus feeds. They first tried cutting down on the quantity and eliminating bottles, but he wasn't getting better. They have now put him fully back on continuous feeds. We hope it will help his breathing improve again. He is back up to 1-2L flow. The good news is that the patch is gone and he's still gaining weight despite the water pills he's on again! Joel reached 1,600 grams today!

There are several neonatologists in the practice that cover the NICU. There are 5 of them who usually cover our hospital in rotation. They will all meet after a couple of days seeing how Joel is doing on these 9mL/hr continuous feeds to discuss some options for moving forward. It's proving to be a little bit difficult to figure out exactly what is best for him. He has gone from nothing to continuous to bolus to bottle to bolus to nothing to bolus to nothing to continuous, etc...his body's got to be really confused, and so are the doctors. We'll figure him out yet!

Joel had some more tests today, too. They are testing to be sure his breathing stress isn't stressing his heart and causing hypertension. He had a renal (kidney) ultrasound today that went well, and he'll have an echocardiogram tomorrow.

We had a good visit tonight, although his sat's were all over the place. We both took a turn holding him, and I read him his book twice. He was really alert during it! A couple of his usual nurses were working, and they stopped by to see him.

Look how big these sleeves were on me...

There was lots of this tonight...

except when being cuddled...

by Mommy or Daddy!

Good Night!