Day 21 - Three weeks old (and officially 32 weeks adjusted!)

Eating milk and gaining weight!

We got a call at 5AM this morning from Milo's nurse practitioner. They needed our permission to do a blood transfusion. Premature babies often need blood transfusions because they are not yet up to speed on replacing red blood cells and they need to give a lot of blood for the different tests. They also put him back on the CPAP because he wasn't getting the oxygen he needed (this might just be a symptom of needing the blood transfusion). They are going to check again tonight to see if he still needs the CPAP after the blood transfusion and take it off if he seems better. There is very little risk to these blood transfusions and they use extra caution with the blood they keep on hand for preemies. If all goes well, this may be the only one he will need and in about a week they will start him on iron supplements to help with anemia.

He is down to one stomach drain and they are going to remove that tomorrow. He is still doing great with processing the milk and they continue to increase his amount (though they had to take a small break with the blood transfusion). They are going to continue to watch his belly closely but we are hopeful that everything is progressing normally.

Shelly is hoping to be able to visit him again tomorrow (if the sneezes and sniffles stay gone overnight) and we are looking forward to having a chance to hold him without all the tubes and attachments. They will be taking out the last stomach tube tomorrow and considering removing the CPAP tomorrow meaning when we see him again, he may only have the PICC Line and OG tube (food line) both soft and well attached making movement easy and comfortable.

Back on the CPAP temporarily and wearing a tiny blood pressure cuff