Milo has been doing great! He was given permission yesterday to switch to all oral feeds whenever he showed that he wanted them (with some rules like a minimum amount per 12 hours and not going longer than 4 hours without eating). He rocked it and actually almost doubled his 'minimum'. They took his feeding tube out and we've been tube free ever since. He is still on the monitors until he comes homes but every victory counts. Most babies only stay a day or two after getting to this point to make sure they can gain weight while eating all their calories. Milo has been gaining weight - more than required since he is eating more - but he still has to wait until his caffeine countdown ends to prove he can breath on his own and ensure we won't run into any difficulties at home.
Today he ate well until this evening when he had a bit of a disappointing feed because he was working on some poop and can't manage to eat, breath and poop at the same time. He only ate just a bit more than half what he normally does. We were a little concerned until his next feed when he woke up, downed the normal amount (normal for him means 75ml not his nurse-given allotment of 51ml) and then stayed awake for 2 hours and ended up demanding more food so we gave him another 30ml before he passed out. It was so fun to see him be awake for that long - we talked to him and had some very good eye contact!
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| Milo learning to hold in his own pacifier (he's not very good at it yet) |
If all goes well with his breathing, we will be home by this weekend. We have taken turns over the last couple of days going home to clean and set up our house. It's all ready to welcome us home and we can't wait. We are still a little nervous to have him at home but we went ahead and bought a special monitor sock that tracks his oxygenation and heart rate just like they do at the hospital except wirelessly. We plan on watching Milo closely during the day but having the sock on him at night will allow me to feel like I can sleep knowing the alarm will wake me up should he stop breathing. It was a little expensive but Shelly and I agreed that it was worth it to have the peace of mind. What really sold us was one of the reviews written by a mom who had a son 8 weeks early who was prone to acid reflux (just like Milo), she woke up to the alarm and found that her baby had formula coming out of his nose and mouth and couldn't breathe. I figure we will probably gain confidence and not need the sock for very long but having him completely to ourselves for the first time will be a lot easier with it than without it.
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