Days 18, 19 and 20

Hi folks!

As I write this, Stephen is working on pictures...we just can't wait for you guys to see our amazing guy!

Zachary is doing great. He's up to full feeds, which is 20 cc's of formula, every eight hours. Starting Saturday he will go back to breastmilk (yep, I'm off the antibiotics!!). He has a problem with reflux and we are all hoping that his switching back to breastmilk will help since it is much easier for babies to digest, plus they digest it quicker. In the meantime, they have extended his feeding time to take an hour to feed him.

Last night he got new, larger prongs for his CPAP. He was giving Mommy, Daddy and all of his nurses a rough time with finding new and inventive ways to get out of his old prongs and then de-sating (losing oxygen). He can even lift his head if he wants to in order to get out of them! The new prongs fit him better, even though they are for babies weighing 1000 grams and he now weighs 965 grams (which is a whopping 2.2 pounds!!)

Over the last few days we have really gotten to know Ned and Lisa, the parents of Brinson (who shares a "cul de sac" with our little Zachary). She has her own little blog at http://brinsons-buzz.blogspot.com. Little Brinson is a sweet and beautiful week old baby girl that has had a busy 24 hours, she too is quite the fighter! Please say a little prayer for her as she is recovering from surgery.

We went to our first NICU parenting meeting yesterday afternoon. It was very good to meet other parents of NICU babies and learn about feeding a NICU baby. Right now Zachary is being fed through a tube and won't be bottle fed until at least he's 32 weeks (adjusted) and right now he is only 29 weeks (adjusted). Most likely, he won't be bottle fed until he's closer to 33 or 34 (adjusted) weeks. NICU nurses and doctors use the adjusted weeks until the baby is full term, which is 40 (adjusted) weeks.

I went to the doctor yesterday and Dr. Pinell is pleased with how I am healing. I have one troublesome portion of the incision that isn't healing as well, but the rest looks good and thankfully all the infections are gone!! Barring nothing new, I go back to see him in two weeks.

We've been spending most of our days (and evenings) at the hospital. It's so great to come back and have comments, and emails to read and voicemails to listen too. We are sorry that we aren't as available as we usually are, but our cell phones are off when we are at the hospital.

That's about all that is going on with us. We hope that life is treating all of you well and, as always, love to all!