Henry looked pretty content this morning. I placed my hand in his isolette and let him grab my finger. He has a strong grip. He held my finger for quite a few minutes.
His saturation levels fluctuated quite a bit, and he had a few bradys while I was with him. My hands were already on him during one, so I tickled his foot to get him out of it. I'm not sure that it was necessary. Most of the time, he gets out of them himself. Janice, his nurse today, said that he had one earlier today that required her to stimulate him out of it.
His weight was 720 grams again today. And his blood gases looked good. His blood sugar was something like 109, which is great. That's a couple sugar tests in a row that have been in the normal range.
He did have an aspirate in his stomach earlier today, meaning that there were some residuals in his stomach. Lisa, not the Lisa who was his nurse yesterday but Lisa the nurse practitioner (NP), said that the residuals were a clear color not the bad green kind (suggesting bile going in the wrong direction). So, they've decided to increase his feedings to 1ml every 3 hours, hoping that they just need to push more breast milk through his system rather than letting it hang out for long periods of time. They'll probably go a little more slowly than last time in increasing the volume of breast milk given. Lisa reiterated that they may go back and forth for a couple times with him on the breast milk. They want him on the breast milk because it has a lot of nutrients that will help him grow. On the other hand, they can't push him too hard because then he might develop necrotizing enterocolitis (an infection that destroys the digestive system; also called NEC). About 5% of preemies get NEC.
All in all, it sounds like they are pleased with his breathing. He stayed on the nasal cannula for a couple hours last night. Lisa said that they'll try him on it again in a few days. And he'll probably go back and forth on it and the CPAP for awhile. But again, he's doing well for his size.
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