Bryce has doubled his birth weight! He weighed 1150 grams (just over 2.5 lbs) this morning, and since he's currently gulping down 12 ml of milk every two hours, we're sure he crossed 1160 grams (he weighed 580 at birth) at some point today. For a two and a half pounder, 12-13 ml of milk is a "full" feeding, so they're going to stop his IV nutrition. Christie and I were especially excited to hear this, because all of his remaining medications can be supplied orally, which means that for the first time in his life, Bryce will not have any intravenous lines!
Our little champ is exhibiting several very promising signs of maturity. As shown in Thursday's video, he has a very strong suck for a baby with a corrected gestational age of only 30 weeks. He's also been demonstrating signs of hunger when his feedings are late, and he's doing great with the breathing -- they reduced the settings on his nasal cannula this morning, and he's typically on "room air" (no extra oxygen). I'm also proud to say that our son is drug-free: he received his last dose of narcotics five days ago, and the neonatologist said that he hasn't shown any signs of withdrawal yet, so he's officially "clean."
In the past few days, it's become clear that the medical team shares our optimism about Bryce. Many doctors and nurses have stopped by to congratulate us on how well he's doing. Also, the nurses have started to explain certain aspects of Bryce's future care, such as what to expect when he goes home. In fact, one of the nurses said "now he just needs to get bigger!" We know the next eight weeks probably won't be all sunshine and rainbows, but Christie and I were feeling especially lighthearted when we left the NICU today. Print this post
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