"Henry is huge!"

One of Henry's nurses from his first or second week in the NICU, Joyce, said to me today that "Henry is huge!" He is after all almost at the 2 lbs mark! Joyce hasn't had Henry in a while because she has been taking care of the triplets that are in Henry's pod (very quiet triplets). Nice to know that Joyce is occasionally looking in on him; she has been in the NICU for thirty six years and has a great touch with the babies.

Janice was Henry's day nurse. When I arrived, she was trying to soothe him. Apparently, he kept desating every time she left him. And, he was crying a bit. He has a very small cry. His grandpa heard it for the first time yesterday.

Janice had tried positioning Henry in several different ways, but he wasn't a happy camper today. He had an eye exam this morning. Things look fine. Just as they should for his age. Preemies sometimes have problems with their eyes, such as retinal detachment. So, he'll be getting regular eye checks as he progresses.

I placed my hands on him for a while. He kept squirming and managed to roll over onto his face. His stats continued to look good as the oxygen mask did its job, but I asked Janice to reposition him.

He had a small brady/apnea episode but got out of it himself.

I talked with Dr. McLain. She said that he is doing "fantastic" for his age/weight. She said that a lot of preemies in his general group are still intubated at this point. So they happy that he's continued to do well on the CPAP.

Feeds are being increased by 1 ml every six hours. The goal continues to be 16 ml of breast milk every three hours. At that point, they can take him off the TPN (which means he wouldn't need the PIC line). The TPN is the liquid nutrients and sugar that are placed into his veins. As I have mentioned before, the feeds have to be monitored closely until we hit his projected arrival date (August 11) because necrotizing enterocolitis is still a possible problem.

Word has gotten around that Henry pulled his PIC line out. I'm glad that the doctors and nurses are amused by this. I was more amused by the feeding tube pulls than last night's PIC line episode. Over the past few weeks, Henry has been described by various NICU staff members as "feisty," "sassy," "a fighter," and "purposive." David, the respiratory technician, told me a few weeks ago that Henry was a fighter and that those types of babies tend to do better than the ones that are passive. My dad has said that he's never seen such spirit in anything so small. So I am hoping that Henry continues to be willful, except of course when it comes to listening to his mother.