June 5, 2010

Benjamin had a great week! He's up to 10 ml/hr on his feeds (8 ozs/day) which is truly amazing. He's 2 kilos (approximately 4 lbs 5 ozs) and the hope is he can continue to tolerate the amount of breast milk they're giving him so he'll eventually not need the parenteral nutrition. They may also consider eliminating the omegaven and adding calories to the milk instead. It's a good feeling to finally be able to take milk out of the freezer and bring it to the hospital!

This week's eye exam showed significant improvement of the ROP in his right eye and only a little in his left. When he's awake, it almost seems as if he has better control of the muscles in his eyes and is able to focus on our faces when we're talking to him. Over the past few days, we've noticed that he has longer periods of alertness. When his nurses prop him up he loves to look around and can easily follow the sound of a voice.

He's at a pressure of 4 on the nasal cannula. They tried to decrease to 3 yesterday, but he didn't like that so they put him back up to 4. He runs the show and has been very good at communicating his needs; therefore, when he's ready to handle the reduced pressure he'll let us know!

He wasn't able to have a reike session this week because the nurse that does it had to take an assignment, but you only have to massage his gums to calm him down. It's the funniest thing! There's this little sponge that almost looks like a lollipop that is used to wipe out his mouth and he loves it. I guess it has a nice minty flavor to it as well. Turns out he loves minty things just like his mom and his sister. When he's finally able to come home, we'll have to make sure we stock up on them for those fussy times!