3 Pounds and Then Some!

Prayers before bedtime

 Team Altman

Joshua sleeping

Right after bath time and wide awake!

Fast asleep after afternoon feeding

Kangaroo Time

Mommy and Joshua love being together

Spending time with daddy!

As of this morning, our little peanut weighed in at a whopping 3 pounds and 1 ounce. Joshua still looks small, but we can definitely see the difference from when he was first born. He is almost at full feeds, he is up to 26 mL every three hours- 30mL is a full feed. Because he is now eating so much, they were able to take his IV out which was supplying extra nutrients. One less thing attached to him is one more blessing!  He is making significant progress with feeding; when it comes close to feeding, he is showing signs of being hungry such as sucking on his fingers and reacting to stimulation around his mouth. Because he is starting to show signs of wanting to eat as opposed to just eating, the doctors are going to start bottle feeding him hopefully by next week. Currently there is a feeding tube that runs into his mouth and down to his stomach, so he doesn't taste anything he just feels his stomach get full. Bottle feeding is one of his milestones he must reach before he can go home. I hope he tolerates it well!

Today was bath day, and mom got to do the honors! The bath usually wears him out, by the end of it all he is already passed out in a deep sleep. Because Joshua cannot regulate his body temperature yet, they can't actually submerge him in water, so instead he stays in his incubator and we bring the bath to him. His temperature has to be about 98.0 or above in order to give him a bath. The little gold sticker attached to his tummy is a temperature probe and it is constantly reading his temperature and automatically adjusting the incubator, or isolette, to warm up or cool down according to the reading.

In my last post, the doctors had taken Joshua off the caffeine in hopes that he would not have any bradycardias or apneas. He has been having a few, three last night, but fortunately he was able to recover all on his own without stimulation from the nurses. The other day while holding Joshua, he had a bradycardia in my arms and it was very scary. His face turned blue and his heart rate dropped below 80 bpm, the normal range is about 130-160 bpm (beats per minute). The nurse came over and firmly patted his back and his heart rate came back up.

Joshua's breathing is doing excellent. He still has his nasal cannula which is supplying him 2mL of oxygen. Hopefully they will ween him down to 1mL and then after that it comes out of his nose and he is free of another tube attached to him! He is always pulling this out of his nose and getting extra attention from the nurses. Enjoy  the photos I have posted, and check back for another update! Thank you again for your continued prayers.