So says Dr. Klein, the head of the NICU (our favorite doctor and savior). We are starting to understand that. After 59 days, we know that we still have a couple months to go. Alexander is now 33 weeks gestation - so at least another 7 weeks until his due date (March 3). Instead of dwelling on the time, we find things to celebrate each day.
This week we are celebrating that our little guy is starting to become our big guy. He continues to tolerate his feedings and is now taking 32 cc every three hours, or a little over an ounce. Again, the more he grows, the faster he can regenerate his lung tissue and the stronger he will become. This extra weight makes him look like a mini version of his brother. He was able to have his heat lamp turned off so was wearing clothes this week which makes him look older and bigger!
Another celebration is Pete got to hold him for the first time. It was so very sweet. We both got to take a turn and he was awake almost the entire time - just watching us and hanging out. He fell back asleep in Pete's arms.
Alexander continues to have pretty severe lung disease and will most likey be intubated on his vent for a few more weeks as they work to get his settings lowered, along with lowering his oxygen needs. The good thing is they are starting to slowly be able to lower his settings (reducing the pressures in his lungs) and he's tolerating it well. He was able to get down to only 40% oxygen needs - normal air is 40%. Baby steps, but we'll take it!
He had his eyes checked today as they start looking for eye disease around this time. Premies often have eye disease caused by disorganized growth of retinal blood vessels, which can result in scarring and retinal detachment. They give a normal eye exam, dilating his eyes, to check on the existence of ROP (Retinopathy of prematurity). It can be mild in some cases but can lead to blindness in extreme cases. So far it's too early to tell, so they will check again next week.
Day by day, we remain hopeful and pray for continued steps in the right direction!
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