33/7

Notice anything different?
Wait, look at this one:
Now do you notice anything different?
How about right next to each other:

Can you see it now?

Yesterday, he was 1850 grams (for the second time. He reached 1850, and then lost 50 grams. Big poop.), which is 4.079 pounds, and was weaned down to a .25 liter cannula. This morning, he was 1910 grams (4.211 pounds) and after our morning nuzzle, during which he was unusually sleepy, they discontinued his nasal cannula. That's right, Little Man was breathing on his own all day. As of our departure from the hospital this evening, he had been off the cannula for ten hours. He may tire out and have to go back on, and that's fine, but it was pretty amazing to see him without it. He still desats, of course, and just when I got used to the low alarms, I am back to watching the monitors again, even though the situation is not much different. He had a good cuddle with Pete, though, and only really dropped his stats once.

It's one step closer to home. He's on the list for a transfer over to the Special Care, which is a step-down, Level 2 nursery, so that could happen at any time, as soon as a bed opens up over there. The next step will be getting him to learn to really use those boobs for food.

He's 33 weeks gestational age and 7 weeks old. We're pretty proud of him. He's had to do so much outside of the womb, using more energy and with added stress on his little systems. He looks around more and seems to be able to see things, but it's hard to say. The book says that his pupils should be able to constrict, dilate, and detect light. His first eye exam was a week ago, and it did not show any signs of ROP, though that could still develop. ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) is very common. It's "a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing about 2¾ pounds (1250 grams) or less that are born before 31 weeks of gestation." Because their eyes have not fully developed, abnormal blood vessels can sometimes grow and spread throughout the retina. It can lead to detachment of the retina. He'll have his second eye exam this coming Thursday. It's one of our remaining worries for him, at this point.

In the intervening time, we'll watch his progress in the breathing department and continue to encourage the nuzzling every time we get him out of his third womb.

Every day, he's grabbing more little pieces of my heart...