One Month Milestones

Landon had a fabulous week this week reaching many milestones and celebrating his one month birthday!  I couldn't help myself by bringing in our blocks to stage a few sleepy pictures with him so I wouldn't miss his first month picture, despite him being in the hospital.

Landon began experimenting with "po feeding" (a NICU term for 'by mouth' - I believe the po origin is Latin).  He really impressed all of us as he was a champ with his bottle feeds.  The first one he only finished about half of his feed (17 out of 34 mls) and since then he's been finishing the full bottles which are now 38 mls.  He is using the bottle about 4 feeds per day as he still requires the feeding tube so he doesn't exert too much energy so that he will continue to gain weight.  Lance and I are still getting the hang of feeding Landon the bottles and burping him afterwards.  In handling a preemie with feeds it can be pretty stressful as he is still hooked up to all of the monitors and he is still working on his coordination of sucking, swallowing, breathing all together.  As if feeding your baby for the first time isn't stressful enough, earlier this week Landon would continue to brady and desat while I was breast and bottle feeding him.  So I've quickly learned to ignore the monitors (to some extent) and purely watch his signals.  This has been a great technique because I am learning his triggers such as the colorization of his skin and his movement during when he begins to stop breathing or just needs a break to catch up a bit. 

In my last post I mentioned a few tests that he would have this week as well.  He did great during all of them and we are so proud of the progress he has made.  The eye exam came back as expected for his gestational age - his eyes are still immature, but there are no signs within the blood vessels and retina that he will have any issues.  He will have continued eye exams every two weeks until he reaches full-term.  Additionally, the brain ultrasound came back very positive... no brain bleeding and all of the structures and formation look strong as well.  He also had a hemoglobin test this week to determine if he has the appropriate amount of reticulocyte in his blood - this test can only be done after 30 days of age as it takes some time for it to show up in the bloodstream.   The reticulocyte is the content that enables him to produce the necessary blood counts on his own and the lack of it is what had caused him to be anemic.  His numbers looked great and in turn we have seen a drastic difference with his anemia this week.  His skin is pinker and he gets feistier when he doesn't like something (like getting his temperature taken, wiping his hiney, or a poopy diaper).  They say he will eventually grow out of the anemia, but due to him having great numbers of the reticulocyte there is no need for a blood transfusion! 

Landon is continuing to pack on the pounds too!  He is now 4 pounds 6 ounces, such a big boy now!  You can really see the difference as he is filling out.  He now has the cutest double chin and has already outgrown most of his preemie clothes!  He wore newborn size clothes last night... he is swimming in it, but nonetheless it is still such a great milestone!  They say that now with his chubby cheeks that he is beginning to look like me... what is that supposed to mean!?!  Just kidding, I think he is actually starting to look more like me too!

 

Landon's primary goals are to feed and grow at this point which is great progress from just a week ago.  Lance and I are starting to discuss the possibility of transferring him back to Phoenixville Hospital again so that he can be closer to home.  This will help significantly to allow more time for us to be there, especially for Lance and especially for me to be there more frequently throughout his feeding times throughout the day.  We are torn with this decision though as we have grown so comfortable with the nursing teams and all of the support and resources that we have at Pennsylvania Hospital.  It will also be bittersweet to leave his primary nurse, Leah.  She has been so amazing and I remember just weeks ago crying to her on the phone checking on his status in the middle of the night and just last night we were chatting about what to do when Landon comes home.  She is so positive and genuinely cares about Landon and even our well-being too! 

Speaking of transferring and possibly being one step closer to discharge... Lance and I went to dinner Thursday night to PF Changs.  It was a nice change from the hospital cafeteria and trying to scrounge up any sort of left overs in the fridge for dinner.  At the end of our meal we opened up the fortune cookies and this is a picture of the one I got.  I am just so hopeful that this is referring to when Landon comes home!

Fingers Crossed!!!