Great start to the week

Since Patrick was awake when we visited him yesterday morning, I decided to go to the hospital early today to see if I could catch him awake again. I arrived in the NICU at 9:30 to find the little guy alert and wiggling around. His nasal cannula was out, and he was wearing his little t-shirt again. He also has a fancy new quilt with school buses on it.

Surprise! He *can* open both eyes at one time! Patrick stayed awake for about 20 minutes of my visit this morning. After that, he zonked out...with one eye a little bit open, of course!

Patrick's nurse came over and told me that he had a good night, and that all morning he had been trying his best to eat his hand. Since they stopped his feeds recently, she figured that he was pretty hungry and suggested to the doctor that we try giving him a tiny amount of milk from a bottle. I was surprised because we were told that they would be very slow to increase his feeds via the feeding tube because of the recent spit-ups. We thought that bottle feeds were still a long time away!

She reached into Patrick's new cooler and poured 6 mililiters of milk into a tiny bottle. Then, she showed me how to hold him and give him the bottle, making sure that Patrick was able eat while coordinating his sucking, swallowing, and breathing. (This is something that is easy for full-term babies, but for preemies it's a little trickier and takes some practice.) I could tell that he was excited for his breakfast, and he ate it all pretty quickly. And, he managed to keep it all down afterwards! The doctor said that if he tolerates the bottle feeds well that they'll try to do that twice a day. Eating takes a lot of energy, so they'll introduce them slowly. Patrick was exhausted after his little meal and fell asleep as soon as he was finished.

Because his is a Linn male, Patrick requires his own cooler. It's the first of many (if he's anything like his Dad), and naturally it's from REI.

Andy visited Patrick later this afternoon and met more members of his medical entourage. The physical therapist showed Andy some exercises to help Patrick increase the range of motion in his foot. (He has a club foot that they're working to straighten out with a splint. Once he's discharged they'll use hard casts to keep making progress. She also showed Andy how much progress they've already made in the past three weeks.) The radiologist stopped by and said that the calcium deposits on his liver are not concerning. His doctor said that the caffeine that they were giving him to help his breathing may have been what caused the spit-ups that he's been experiencing. For now they're going to decrease the caffeine treatments to see if his breathing stays strong and the upset stomach goes away. (This would allow them to keep progressing on his feeding.)

All in all, a great day for the P-Man!