This week has been full of milestones! I've attempted to write an update several times but it has been a very busy week so hopefully I can finally finish a post and share all of our excitement. Blake is 3 months now and has officially hit the 5 pound milestone! He is about 5 pounds 1 ounce to be exact. His weight gain is always one of my favorite daily updates that I receive from his nurses. It's hard to believe that he started out 1 pound 8 ounces and now is a healthy 5 pounds!
Another wonderful milestone that he has reached is that he is now in a big boy bed! No more isolette for him. I walked into his room on Thursday and saw that his isolette was open and there was a crib next to it. I literally couldn't stop smiling once the nurse came in and confirmed that he was upgrading to an open crib. Blake is big enough to be able to control his own body temperature which is another check off his To-Do list before discharge. The nurses are so good to him. They attached a little musical mobile and other little crib toys to his bed to give him something to do during his awake periods. He would be considered a term baby now so he is more awake and aware than he used to be a few weeks ago.
Yesterday, the nurses tried giving him a bottle for the first time! They are starting with 5 cc's at a time and will slowly increase it as Blake allows them. Blake is on full and continuous feeds of the Elecare formula still but they used breast milk in his bottle. He will be on the formula until he shows signs that his body is digesting like the way it should. The Elecare is a lot easier on his belly since it is already pre digested. The neonatal specialist also said that I can start trying to breastfeed during his cares as well. The last thing I want to do is have him only feed from the bottle and me having to pump for an entire year. Not my cup of tea but I'll do what I need to. But hopefully Blake will be able to eventually to do both.So the plan as of now is to offer him the bottle every 4 hours. His nurse just called me a few minutes ago to inform me that he is doing really well with the nipple feeding which is wonderful. The sooner he learns to do full feeds by nipple (bottle or breast), the sooner he can come home.
Blake has also been able to wean on the vapotherm to 3 liters of pressure too! One nurse said that he may only have one more wean before they just take him off completely. I can NOT wait until he can get rid off all those tubes on his face! When I held him earlier, his numbers looked amazing so he is doing really well and hopefully they can wean him again soon. He truly is the definition of a miracle. The doctors and nurses have been talking about him almost being ready to go home and I am getting extremely excited!
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now! I have a whole new pep in my step and I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders. Blake is doing fabulously and I am crossing my fingers that he continues to progress. At the rate he is going, he should be home pretty soon!
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| Smiling in his sleep |
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| Sleepy |
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| Relaxing in his first tub bath from mama |
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| Beautiful big bright eyes! He was so awake! |
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| All tuckered out from his bath |
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| The nurses gave him some entertaining crib toys |
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| Kisses from mama |
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| Cozy in his big boy bed <3 |
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