Doug and I went to visit last night, and he was stretched out while the nurses thumped on his little chest. I realized that we have missed the curled-up-newborn stage during the past two weeks.
He's wide-eyed and alert, taking in all the sights and sounds around him during his waking hours (which I hear are often 4-7 am). He even cooed and smiled.
After some feeding issues yesterday, it was determined that he needed to be fed thickened breastmilk with a tube (pictured above). While his lab work is perfect, the latest x-ray didn't show any improvement, and now the neonatologist is convinced that there is no bacterial infection. The newest theory is that he is aspirating milk during his feeds, and that is causing the lung problems.
The bottom line, however, is that they see no reason to continue antibiotics which means there is no reason for this gargantuan 8 lb., 13 oz. hunk of a boy to stay in the NICU any longer. The plan is for him to be discharged in the morning and to follow up with a swallow test at our local children't hospital in the afternoon. Hopefully the results will tell us definitely whether or not he is aspirating.
No comments:
Post a Comment