3 months!

Oliver is three months old today!  What a journey it's been so far. Oliver now weighs 5 pounds and 11 ounces.  That's actually down a few ounces from a few days ago, but he's recently started a diuretic so he's losing water weight.  His nurse is actually hoping that without as much fluid on him, he'll both start breathing better and eating better.

Happy 3 months!

Oliver is now down to eye exams every three days.  Dr Oliver is very happy with the progress from the Avastin injections.  He still will most likely need surgery, though.  But the goal is that his lungs will have developed more before that has to happen.  He also most likely needs hernia surgery.  Veronica is concerned about him possibly being put under anesthesia twice in the same time period, so she suggested they do the hernia surgery with a spinal block.  We'll look into that more when the time comes.

Swinging away

Now that Oliver's getting older, he's also getting bored.  Last week they brought in a swing for him to try, and he loved it!  Not bad considering just a few weeks ago he was still so sensitive to movement that even rocking while holding him bothered him.  He's been waking about a half hour before his care times, hungry.  The swing is one of the few things that will appease him at those times.  I'm not sure when they'll move more to an "on demand" feeding schedule. 

We're still hoping Oliver will get to come home shortly after his due date, December 16.  He still needs to meet two goals before they'll consider it.  First, he has to be taking all of his feedings by mouth.  Right now, he eats between half and 2/3 of his feedings by mouth.  When I'm not there, they give him a bottle.  When I am there, we nurse.  He's up to 50 ml feedings, and his two main night nurses, Stacy and Rachel, can get him to take pretty much all 50 by bottle.  During the day, he's not doing nearly as well.  I'm not sure if it's actually a time of the day thing, or a person thing.  When he nurses, we have to guess how much he's taking.  We've tried doing before and after weighings, but he's a mover and a shaker, and I seriously doubt the accuracy of the scale when he's moving so much.  We've also tried pulling the milk out of his stomach through his feeding tube, but there's no telling where the tube is sitting and if it's getting all of it.  We're estimating he's taking around 15 ml, but again, it's a total guess.  He has to get much closer to the 50 before they'll be happy with nursing.

Twice a week we can stay in a "rooming-in room" to be with Oliver for his overnight cares.  Now, with the NICU on lockdown for cold and flu season, we can't take Nathaniel with us, so it means it's just me staying.  It's hard to be away from David and Nathaniel, but great to see Oliver overnight when it's a little more calm in the NICU.  Calm, however, doesn't mean quiet.  And as I'm a light sleeper... it means little to no sleep for mama those nights. We've already decided to donate some of the preemie outfits we have for Oliver to the NICU, but now I'm wondering if I should donate some sheet sets.  The rooming in rooms have either double or queen beds, and the hospital only has the twin sheets for regular hospital bed.  The first night we stayed, David and I thought we'd been short-sheeted.  Nope, just a twin sheet, draped sideways over the bed.