Kangaroo Care

Yesterday Nick cooperated much better and got to do Kangaroo care with me and be held by Bryan. It was wonderful. He was a little upset at first, but finally settled down and just slept on my chest. Wow, it was an amazing feeling. It is always wonderful to hold him, but to feel his skin against mine was special. He did so well with it. He seemed to really enjoy it. After that Bryan got to change his diaper and put him back in his bed. He seemed really content. In fact, he didn't have an episode until 6 am this morning. I would like to think that is due to the special holding and care he got yesterday from both Bryan and I.

Everything else is still the same. He is tolerating his feedings well, he is up to 6.4 cc's an hour. I think he is at max feeds for his weight, or at least really close to it, so I don't know how much they will increase from here. (A little conversion, 6.4 cc's an hour means he gets about 5 ounces a day)

He is still on the bipap machine and handling it fairly well. I spoke with the respiratory therapist yesterday about the possibility of him going back on the vent. For now, it is still a decent possibility. However, she did say, that while he keeps having the spells, he was having the spells on the vent, so they felt like if he has them on the vent or the bipap, they might as well just leave him on bipap. So for now, he will continue to stay on bipap unless he has a major crash or just seems to be not tolerating it well. The other possibility for going back on the vent is his weight. He has to work hard with the bipap, doing the work himself, and if they feel that he is burning too many calories n the machine, they may have to put him on the vent. For now the most important thing is to make him grow as big and as fast as they can.

So, that is where we are today. Fairly positive. We are all happy with his progress right now. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas.