In addition to turning 1 month old, Edward has hit a few other milestones over the past few days. He is now officially over 1 kilogram! He was born at 800 grams and dropped to a nadir of 680 grams following birth (an expected, normal drop). With IV nutrition in the beginning and breast milk over the past 2 weeks, Edward has 'ballooned' to a whopping 1060 grams (1.06 kg or 2 lb 5 ounces). He continues to get around 150 milliliters of breast milk every day which is actually fortified to 27 kilocalories per 'serving' via nutritional additives.
Edward has also opened both his eyes! Depending on their gestational age, many premature babies are born with their eyes 'fused'. Katie and I patiently waited day after day until he began to slowly open each one. Both eyes are now wide open and actually have been so for almost two weeks. I have been waiting to post this news because I have been trying to snap a good picture of the eyes open to accompany the post but have been unsuccessful - despite his many advances, Edward does not listen to everything I say quite yet.
Edward has also made great strides from a respiratory standpoint. He has been extubated for over 10 days now and remains on CPAP - a snug mask that fits over his nose and provides both a high concentration of inspired oxygen and extra pressure to keep his lungs 'inflated'. But yesterday, Edward completed his first nasal cannula trial! The CPAP mask was taken off and in its place two prongs were inserted in his nose. The nasal cannula provides higher amounts of oxygen just like CPAP, but does not provide the extra amount of pressure. Edward completed an entire hour of nasal cannula yesterday without any problems and completed another two hour trial today. They will continue with these nasal cannula trials, incrementally lengthening them, as long as he tolerates. The ultimate goal will be to transition to only nasal cannula and then eventually to room air!
Enjoy a few more pictures of the 'old man.'
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