I think Henry has finally figured out that if he wants to get out of the NICU he needs to grow. Now he is doing his best to make that happen. Last night he weighed 2050 grams, or 4lbs 8 oz. That is 50 grams more than the previous night which is fantastic. He has grown 125 grams in the last 3 days which is over 40 grams per day.
He has certainly been one to grow in spurts. It's hard to stop from thinking, "If he keeps this up he'll be 5lbs in a week." While it is possible and I'm hoping that it happens, the reality is he will probably put on the brakes in a day or two.
He is eating very well though. Last night I fed him at 9pm and he ate 70ml's. That is 20 more than I had seen him eat in any previous sitting. He is keeping it down very well too. Kate experienced some heart rate drops during the day yesterday when it seemed like he was choking. However, they are much less dramatic than they used to be and I haven't seen that happen for a couple days now.
Last night he was extremely active. I came in and he almost immediately started crying. After Sue weighed him and I did his cares I fed him 50 ml's. He was not satisfied. While trying to burp him he lay on my shoulder and lifted his head up and moved it from side to side and even head butted me. He wiggled to the point I thought he would crawl right up over my shoulder. After about 10 minutes of this I finally asked for some more milk which he plowed through. He still seemed to want more when he was done. I didn't give it to him. I was afraid of him getting sick and throwing it all up. I was definately tempted though. I'd like to know how much he can handle.
Maybe I'll put up some pictures of past champions of the Philadelphia Wing Bowl in his bassonet to inspire him. That is a lovely competition where they stuff their faces with hot wings. The winner last time I saw it was a tiny little asian woman who had the nick name "The Black Widow." I can't imagine a nobler aspiration than to eat more hot wings than anyone else on the planet.
After about an hour of changing him from one position to the next I finally got him relatively settled down. Nurse Joyce made an interesting point to Kate the other day. This is how he is when he is anemic. He is going to be much more active when he gets his red blood cell count up to normal. Yikes. I really think he might be crawling by the end of the month.
This recent progress has me very excited about him coming home. It seems like it could be very very soon. I don't want to jinx things but here's to hoping.
That opens up a whole new pandora's box. What are things going to be like when he is home? With his history Kate and I can't imagine leaving him unattended without monitors. So we're figuring we won't be sleeping for the next month or so as we will probably be keeping eyes on him 24x7. We might bring him home on monitors. I know that Kate definately wants this and I think it is probably the best thing for our peace of mind but it might not be necessary. He will most likely be on oxygen. Kate has pointed out that this is probably a good thing considering the animals we have. We've cleaned and kicked the dogs out of the bedroom where Henry's crib is. We are praying that he isn't allergic to pets as this would be devastating to our first family of 3 cats and 2 dogs. I'll probably be ordering some mega air filter soon.
I had better go, just doing a quick blog on my lunch hour. Kate is at the hospital where they were inserting the GI probe this morning at 11am. We'll see if this shows anything interesting.
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