Mantras of the NICU

There are a few things that the NICU staff have told us over and over again...since the very first night that he was brought into the NICU.

(1) No news is good news. If things are OK, then we won't be contacted.
(2) NICU life is like a rollercoaster. There will be good days and bad days. If you google the word "preemie," you'll come across a lot of websites that use the rollercoaster metaphor.
(3) Preemie progress isn't linear. It's two steps forward, one step back. To look at a baby's progress, one should look at things from week to week, not day to day.

The "two steps forward, one step back" phrase is one of the staff's favorites.

From a parental perspective, the one step back days are still really difficult to deal with. Even the bradys, which are very common among preemies, are hard to deal with, even though they are "normal" for preemies.

All in all, I know that Henry is doing better than he was this time last week. Around this time last week, his stomach was gray, and they didn't know what was causing it. Today, his color is a little pale, but they were giving him a blood transfusion (he hadn't had one since 5/9), so that should help his color out. But in any event, slightly pale is much better than gray. Around this time last week, he weighed around 620 grams. Today, his weight is 740 grams...which is better than 620 grams. He doesn't look swollen, so it looks like the weight gain is real.

Dr. Wispe mentioned that he may reject the breast milk again. It could take several trials before his digestive system is ready. After all, if he had stayed in the womb, he'd be 28 weeks today...not expected to digest breast milk for another 3 months. So, we are asking a lot of his system to digest it now. Hopefully, he'll take it. But one step back on breast milk is quite probable.