Day 52 - Graduation to NICU Level II

Today is a HUGE milestone in little Zachary's life. Today he graduated from NICU Level III to NICU Level II (a.k.a. the "step down unit")! Yeay Zachary!!! NICU II focuses on getting him ready to go home, i.e. maintaining his body temperature and learning how to drink a bottle. Today he drank his first bottle and once he got the hang of it, he did really well, he drank 35 mls which is over an ounce! He now drinks 32 mls every three hours which equals just over eight and a half ounces a day! We thought you all would like to see some comparison pictures.

Here's Zachary on the day he was born...

and here he is yesterday!

Look how his feet hang over the snuggly now!

Here he is on the day he was born (next to Stephen's hand)... and here he was yesterday (next to Stephen's hand)!

He's now 3 pounds, 10.4 ounces (over 3 and 1/2 pounds) and 16 and 3/4 inches long. Remember when he was born he was one pound, 14.5 ounces and 13 and 3/8 inches long, that seems so long ago, but it was only seven weeks and two days ago!

Last night he was really alert when Mommy was holding him.

Daddy had his hand up high and Zachary was watching Daddy's hand intently. We even got a little video of it.

Here are some pictures (and even a video!) of Zachary's first attempt at drinking from a bottle. We were so proud of how well he did!

Here's the bottle before...

Here he is drinking his milk.

Here's the nurse teaching Zachary how to suck on the bottle.

He even finished with a big burp, before going to sleep.

We couldn't believe he drank the whole thing!

We want to thank everyone who left comments for us, please keep them coming! We love them and so will Zachary when he is older! We are so fortunate to have so many people loving us and praying for us. We hope you have enjoyed sharing a little bit of Zachary's big day, the day he graduated to NICU Level II!

Love to all!

Day 51 - Pictures!!

Zachary is sleeping right now so I'm letting Stephen do the same while I update the blog with pictures!!

Mommy loves holding Zachary.

Zachary loves holding Mommy too.

Granny got to hold Zachary while Stephen was home recuperating from being sick.

It sure looks like he is trying to smile!

Enjoying not having the CPAP! Look, you can see his nose!

Getting his assessment by his nurse, Sara. If you click on the picture, you'll notice that she's holding his hand while she assesses him. Our Zachary is quite the flirt with his nurses.

Getting his first feel of a stuffed animal. Sara is rubbing the bunny that Brinson's folks got him over his hand. He's not so sure about the new sensation.

Big Yawn!

Sound asleep and holding Daddy's finger.

Nice and comfy!

We hope you enjoyed the pictures. Love to all!

Day 51 - Video time

Our little boy is doing great this morning. Is oxygen is down to 40% and he is still doing great with his breathing (only having short periods of rapid breathing). Yeay Zachary!

Here's a video we took of him last night. He's such a happy baby!

Love to all!

Day 50 - Good News!!

We are so proud of our big boy. He is now seven weeks old and is 34 weeks (corrected). Only six weeks left until the day he was supposed to be born (and hopefully will be able to come home!).

He's doing so well on the nasal cannula this time. He still has some rapid breathing from time to time, but he also has periods where his breathing is normal. His doctors put him on Lasiks today to help with the fluid collection and he seems to be doing so well. They even began to wean his oxygen down this evening! He went from 100% oxygen flowing into the cannula to 75% when we left this evening. Yeay Zachary!

In other related news, Stephen finished painting and sponge painting Zachary's room. It looks great and we think Zachary will enjoy it. Next weekend we are going to work on putting up the border and then Stephen will be putting his furniture together so we can put everything away for use when he gets home.

Oh, and as predicted, Zachary has learned to pull out his feeding tube. His nurse Kaitlin told us that she went to feed him on Thursday night and he had the tube pulled out and was holding the end of it for her. She was not impressed but had a sense of humor about it.

We now spend even more time holding Zachary's hand, it's better that he holds our fingers than his feeding tube! Our little boy is quite amazing in his abilities. He can find and play with the tape on his face, he can turn his head from one side to the other, he can roll from his side to his back and he can pull out his feeding tube. His hands are always moving, even in his sleep! What a great baby!

We hope everyone is having a great weekend. Love to all!

P.S. Please remember to leave comments for Zachary (we will be saving this blog for him to read when he gets older). Thank you!

Days 48 and 49

Hooray! Zachary is off the CPAP again! They put him on the nasal cannula this morning. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of him. So far so good! Please pray that little Zachary does well on the nasal cannula and doesn't have to go back to the CPAP. The doctors say that if he has to go back on the CPAP, they will run some tests and check to make sure his airway is clear. If he stays on the nasal cannula he may graduate to the Level II NICU as early as next week. Whoo hoo!

As for Mommy and Daddy, Kim's allergies are getting better, but Stephen has been sick and has had to stay home and not visit Zachary. He's doing better and has been on antibiotics for 48 hours so he plans to visit our little one tonight.

Zachary now weighs 3 pounds, 8.2 ounces and measures 16 and 3/8 inches. He is getting 28 mls of Mommy's milk over a 45 minute period, every three hours. He's doing so well.

That's about all that's new. We hope that all of you have a wonderful weekend.

Love to all!