Nathan has been on a 24 hour a day continuous feed for a while now. He can't suck, swallow and breath all at the same time yet so the breast milk is pumped directly into his stomach. At the moment he is getting 6.5 milliliters per hour (every hour) and he is digesting virtually all of it. They are increasing that rate every day. His target rate is around 9 milliliters an hour, but as he gains weight, his target feed rate will also increase. The feed tube now goes through his nose. It is more comfortable through the nose and it stays in better. They can't put it through the nose when he is on the CPAP respiratory assistance because the nose must be open for that. But now that he is completely off the CPAP his nose is open for the feed tube.
Did you know that your intestine attaches to your stomach on the right side? As a result, preemie babies digest best while laying on their right side or stomach, but they also get rotated onto their left side and back and must keep digesting in those positions as well.
Yesterday they started fortifying the milk with extra calories. It's like a preemie protein shake! With the extra fortification and increasing feed rates, he'll be getting big soon!
He is still on the nasal cannula to provide extra oxygen when needed. His oxygen is set on room air levels most of the time, but occasionally he needs some brief assistance. He gives the nurses a regular challenge by ripping the cannula out of his nose. You'll see in one of the pictures how they have put a lot of extra tape on it as an attempt to keep it in place. He seems to tear through the tape pretty fast. Don't worry, it's a baby skin sensitive medical tape. Luckily his breathing is progressing very well because the cannula is somewhere other than his nose a lot of the time!
Nathan is also now on "cycled lighting". They open the blankets on his incubator during the day in order to get him used to day / night cycles. This is one of the many steps they take to get him ready for the real world.
Nathan recently got moved to a new spot in the NICU that has unusual lighting and not much space to move around. A new baby needed Nathan's old spot more than he did. The new location makes taking pictures difficult! Preemie babies don't like camera flashes, so many of the previous and new pictures were without a flash. We have a feeling he will be getting moved to the big kid section within a couple of weeks!
That's pretty much all the news for now!
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