Another milestone - 1000 grams!

He did it! Finally passed the 1000 gram mark! Of course, that is only 2.2 lbs, so really his is still a (micro)peanut, but we'll take it!

Yesterday and today have been much better for J and I. First, we received some beautiful and yummy treats in the mail the other day - chocolate covered strawberries. We loved the baby boy theme, and wow they tasted good! Thank you Trish and Steve!!

Andrew is still chugging along, and has gained weight two days in a row. He's also doing pretty well from a respiratory standpoint, considering his last dose of steroids was over 36 hours ago. His vent settings have gone up marginally (he was at about 39%, and today he was hanging out around 42%), and I even got to hold him again last night. I'm not sure why I've begun to take pics of his vent settings; I guess I want progress to be witnessed by all. To think that a week ago today when they moved him to the CPAP his initial settings were up to 93%, he really has come far this week!

Never to be boring, Andrew has found a new past-time: pulling out his feeding tube (he has two tubes, actually - a feeding tube that goes into the top of his intestines, and a tube with some suction on it that goes into his stomach to keep out excess air that gets in due to the CPAP machine.) He's been pretty active when he is awake, and he loves to have his hands by his face. Well, two mornings ago he grabbed them and pulled them out, and then he did it again last night. It's mostly a nuisance, since every time he pulls them out and they reinsert them he needs to have an xray to make sure they are replaced in the correct place. This boy is going to be trouble!

The nurses have fought back though, and decided to try swaddling last night. Now that he has no active IV's, they can bundle him up in his isolette. Also, since he is getting bigger now, they want to see how/if he can regulate his temperature a little bit. So, they take off the temp probe, turn down the bed, and periodically check his temp to make sure he's at a good temperature. So far, the swaddling has helped keep his tubes in check, and he seems to like it. (OK, like may be a bit of an exaggeration, but he doesn't hate it!) However, periodically I have noticed his little hands sneaking up and finding their way out towards his face again. Here's a pic of our "Baby Burrito" as I like to call him now:

The picture is a little washed out, but we estimate our little burrito is bigger, but probably weighs the same, as a chock-full Chipotle burrito. (He's much cuter though!) Hopefully he'll continue his weight gain and we can stop comparing him to the size of food soon. (John likes to compare him to the 2 lb. SCUBA weights he uses to help students sink in the water.) Keep growing, little man!