2 weeks old

as with most things, time flies! Alex is 2 weeks old today. he is still working on figuring out how to eat but is eating more and more. he is getting approximately 2 ounces per feed (every 3 hrs) and is eating about 1/2 of this per feed on his own currently but he needs to needs to be able of course to eat it all on his own before he can come home. speaking of home, there is still no word on when he will get to come home other than when he eats all of his food. they say all babies figure this out in their own time, we are just anxious for this to happen sooner rather than later as you might imagine!

Alex is back to his birthweight, and just in time (it is standard for babies to get back to their birthweight by 2 weeks of age!). he has already gotten his first hepatitis B vaccine, and a special vaccine called Synagis to help protect him from respiratory synsitial virus (RSV). he will need this again in february and in march of this year. his umbilical cord stump fell off the other day too. everything happens so fast at this age! we have been enjoying his little coos and involuntary smiles . we will try to post pictures if we can catch a good one for you!

overall he continues to do well. please continue to keep him in your prayers. every day in the nicu we are reminded of just how lucky we actually are - he has no breathing issues, no trouble keeping his temperature where it needs to be, no trouble with his heart beat dropping or periods of holding his breath. there are babies right across from him born just 1 day of gestation before him (they were born at 33wks 2 days and alex at 33wks 3 days) who have to be in the isolette to help keep their temperature up, on oxygen and getting special bili lights to help them process their bilirubin - we never needed any of these things! those babies will stop breathing sometimes and drop their heartrate. i can't imagine how scary that is for their parents. thank goodness God told Alex to get ready early so we didnt have to do all of that. feeding is such a minor issue when everything is put into perspective.

waiting one day at a time...
steph

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