Monday, October 17, 2011

Houston is 6 weeks old; 33 weeks gestation

Today our miracle baby is 6 weeks old. Really 6 weeks? Have we been on this journey for that long? I'm pretty sure we are more than half way to getting home.  ;o)

Here is what Houston has been doing in the last few weeks bullet style
  • Weight: 4lbs 1oz.
  • Length: 16.5"
  • Only 1oz. till he can be in an open crib and out of the isolate. He averages weight gain of an ounce a day
  • He had an eye exam today and it went so well and his vision is so good that no other eye exam is needed
  • Takes 35cc per feeding (30cc in 1oz, so hes eating a little over 1 oz every 8 hours)
  • His oxygen is down to .3 per 1 liter. Only .3 down more to go and hes off oxygen all together ;o)
  • He has two primary nurses. When his nurses are on shift they will always be on Houston's bedside until he goes home. Jason and I really liked these two ladies and feel the most comfortable with them taking care of Houston. So we asked them to be his primary nurses and they both accepted. We really LOVE them both. It makes us feel better about leaving him with someone we completely trust with his medical care.

And the BIG news today is after 6 weeks I was able to feed Houston his 1st bottle. I walked into the room today and his nurse said "I have a surprise" and she told me that he is doing well enough to eat from a bottle. She probably thought I was crazy because I started crying. This is a BIG deal in the NICU world.


He gets 30 minutes to eat his 35cc. He did amazing!! He ate about 25cc of the 35 without any problems and no decrease in his heart rate or his oxygen levels. It took him the whole 30 mins to eat the 25cc, but for his first bottle he did amazing. I am so proud of him and so proud to be his mommy.

This week he will only eat 1 bottle per day. If he continues to do well this week, then next week he can take 2 bottles per day. Every week they increase the amount of bottles he will take until he is on full bottle feeds and does not require an NJ (nose tube).

And for fun, here is me feeding Landon for the first time in July 2008 during his 2 week NICU stay
 Landon; July 2008. Landon and Houston look so much a like

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