Making progress

All the news is good news! Xavi is making great progress these days:

• He's been out of the private room for almost two weeks. There are only 2 private rooms in the NICU and he was in one of them for about 7 weeks, so getting out into the ward with the rest of the kids is a good sign that he's not critical anymore. He scooped the most coveted spot in the NICU: the bedside right next to a big window.
• He's in a crib!!! We came in this past Saturday morning to find his nurse completing the changeover from isolette to open crib. This is a great sign of progress, meaning that he's able to keep his body temperature stable without the help of the enclosed isolette, and that he's not having to work too hard and burn too many calories to do it (which would impede his gaining weight). He's now much more accessible and easier to hold. The girls love being able to get so close to him too.
• He weighs 4# 4 oz, just gaining 6 oz in the last 4 days.

And the most wonderful sign of progress is that he is now off of CPAP entirely and just on the nasal cannula. He's been on the cannula for gradually increasing periods of time for the past week. He was doing well and is also getting old enough to be really tired of the CPAP, so yesterday morning they decided to see how he would do on cannula all the time. So far he's doing very well. Being just on the cannula is a great step forward for him, indicating that his lungs are getting stronger and he is becoming overall stronger and more able to handle the work of breathing on his own. 

In addition, being on the cannula full time means that feeding by mouth is in sight. We started "social breastfeeding" about a week ago, giving him time to get the idea without needing to actually get any nourishment from it. The nurses moved his feeding tube to his nose on Sunday, so for the first time in his life, his mouth is free of tubes and he is beginning to make positive associations with his mouth.

Especially now that he's off of CPAP, he is very awake and alert for longer periods of time each day. He seems like a very sociable little guy, really liking to look at people with long, thoughtful gazes. He also loves the music-playing mobile on his crib and will focus on the animals circling around for a long time.

Naked no more

Hurray! Wearing clothes is actually a sign of progress, and Xavi has been making all kinds of small strides in the past week or so: 

• He is becoming overall more stable, so that the main things going on are eating, breathing, and growing without other major interventions or crises anticipated.
• He is gaining weight--some days 1 oz per day--and is up to 3 lb. 6 oz.
• He is more able to maintain his body temperature. They removed the probe which constantly monitored his temperature (the isolette then regulated its temperature moment to moment based on whether he needed to be warmer or cooler), and now he is just in the heated isolette. They are weaning the temperature inside the box, preparing him for the eventual launch to an open crib. He now needs those clothes to help him stay nice and warm.
• His head ultrasounds have shown stable ventricles for the last several weeks. Since there has been no sign of his hemorrhage worsening up until this point, there is a good chance that it won't get any worse.

(Those bright blue spots are part of the CPAP mask, not his eyes :) Not a great picture, but had to show the clothes.

Sweet face

Last week Xavi had a trial on a new kind of CPAP connection. Called the Ram Cannula, it has the smaller facial attachment, but still gives the same CPAP pressure to help keep his lungs open and give oxygen flow. We liked the idea of this new attachment because it was smaller and more comfortable, and also because we could see more of his sweet baby face. However after a couple of days, Xavi needed to go back to the regular CPAP mask because he wasn't getting enough breathing support from the cannula. Disappointing that it didn't last, but still a hopeful sign of things to come.

The small comforts

This fleece-covered bean bag hand is one of Xavi's favorite things about the NICU. The nurses use this and other kinds of bean bags to give him a sense of comfortable containment.

A Watery Interlude

The girls recently began swimming lessons. They were nervous at first (the teachers assured us that screaming for the first few classes was normal), but now they look forward to them. Here are some gems from the first day. 

Xavi in motion

This is how Xavi usually is after we hold him: alert and peacefully awake.

Greetings, Earthlings

I remember this phase of preemie-look with Eva. They are SO cute, but pictures just can't do them justice. The pictures end up having an extra-terrestrial flair about them.

Healing well

Xavi's incision is healing well--the doctors and nurses actually call it gorgeous--and is amazingly small. He's got a few steri-strips hanging on, but otherwise it's a neat and clean healing. Overall, the doctor said yesterday that she is really pleased with his recovery this week. Way to go, Xavi!