Busy Day

Today was a very busy day. Brigham continues to do well with his oral feeding so we were taking care of things that needed to be done before he goes home. He was circumcised today and received a vaccination for RSV. We did our discharge meetings with the OT and the nurse. They will make sure that he is able to sit in his car seat and still maintain his pulse oxygen level this evening. Everything is in order for us to bring him home tomorrow!!! The doctor will do rounds about noon and then we should be able to bring him HOME!

We are very excited and a little nervous.

Closer to home

The gavage tube is gone!!! The nurses decided to let Brigham try to feed completely on his own. He now decides when and how much he eats at each feeding. He still needs to take in at least 173 ml each 12 hours and needs to continue to put on weight. If he can do this for a couple of days he is ready to come home. He took in over 200 ml during the first 12 hours of today...hopefully he keeps it up tonight.

We are so excited!! He was born on Feb. 2nd but it feels like our family will finally be "born" when he gets to join us at home.

Brigham ended up taking 63% of his feedings orally on Tues.

On Wed. Feb 27th he weighed 5 lbs 2.4 oz. We left after his 6:30 feeding and he was at 67% of his feedings orally and only had 1 left for the day. Slowly but surely we are moving towards coming home.

I have added some new pics to the slideshow.

Kristin

Feb 26 - Day 24

Brigham weighs 5 lbs 1.4 oz... He was up to 74% of his feedings oral on Sunday but got tired and dropped to 49% on Monday. Don't know if we will make it out of the NICU before the end of this week or not. If it is this week it will be late in the week or it could be next week. Either way he is still doing great and we are thankful for that blessing!!!

We will let you know when we are coming home. I think we are all ready. I know I am ready to not be going to the hospital every day to sit in the quiet and dark.

Kristin

Day 22 - Feb. 24

Brigham weighs 4lbs 14.5 oz... YEA!! He took 70% of his feedings orally yesterday and was on his way to about the same for today when we left at 7pm. (He was at 69% and had 1 more feeding in the day). Up to this point, he has been fed every 3 hours and gets a certain amount regardless of how much he takes orally (they put the rest through the gavage tube). The nurses explained that the next step is to allow Brig to decide when he wants to eat and how much he wants. He will, however, need to eat a certain amount over a 24 hour period and will need to still be gaining weight. Not sure when we will start this.

We told the nurses that we were thinking maybe we could go home in the next week or two. The nurse said she didn't think it would be two weeks...she was thinking he might be ready to go home in the next week. They won't tell us when he is coming home until the day before they spring him so we will just have to keep you posted.

Keep the prayers coming!!

Kristin

20 days old

4lbs 11.5oz today and yesterday he took about 50% of his feedings orally. That is half-way home!!

Another great day!

Brigham is now 4lbs 10.3oz (little chunk ;-). He had a hearing screening today and there are no concerns in that area. The screening was one of the things that needed to happen before he goes home. He will also have a vision screening before coming home. It seems that as soon as he is taking all feedings orally we will be bringing him home! We had the car seat installed yesterday because Ross and I have a feeling that if all continues to go well, maybe we will all be home in a week or 2.

Keep the prayers going - They are working!!!

Kristin