Update on Ben's progress

It's hard to believe in 13 1/2 hours Ben will be 1 week old!!  This week has absolutely FLOWN by!!  I sure hope time slows down when we get home. 

We were pretty frazzled at the beginning of the week, trying to get everything done that needed to get done and forgetting a lot along the way.  We are finally starting to settle into a routine.  We usually get up and around and try to make it to the hospital around 9:15am.  We try to get there before the NICU doctors do their rounds.  If you catch them during rounds you can get a brief summary of what has happened in the past 24 hours, what it means, and what the plan is from there.  Then Jamie stays at the isolette with Ben while I go to the Mother's Lounge (ie: extract liquid sustanance).  I try and get back by 11am when Ben has his diaper change, feeding (through the gavage - tube down to his stomach), temperature and BP.  We stick around until he falls asleep (or after these times is when we can hold him) and then go get breakfast if we didn't already.  After that we usually go back to the isolette in case he fusses or wakes up.  We can use this time to ask question or review material in his NICU book, but most often just watch him in awe.  1pm and it's time for the Mother's lounge.  This schedule usually repeats itself every 3 hours.  We can help with most of the general duties -sooth him when he's fussy (usually when he's getting his BP done, getting blood taken, or getting tests or if his tummy hurts), change diaper, check temp, assist the nurses by lifting him up, cleaning him up, etc.  Lately we've been heading back to the RMH between 10pm and 11:30pm.  He is changed, fed etc every 3 hours around the clock (2, 5, 8, and 11).

Progress
When he was admitted to the NICU on Saturday he had and IV and was on CPAP, as well as having the electrodes for monitoring body temperature, oxygen, Respitory rate, and pulse.  On monday his biliruben levels were elevated so he had to go under the bililight (a uv light that shines on him and breaks down the biliruben in the blood so it can pass out of the body through the urine).  Monday afternoon they started gavage feedings of breastmilk (1/2 of it was donated or the first 2 feedings.  By the 3rd feeding he no longer needed the donated milk).  Monday they also switched out his CPAP machine for a different type.  Wednesday morning at 8am they removed him from the CPAP machine and as of today he is still off of it. 
Up until wednesday or thursday he was not tolerating the breast milk very well.  His little tummy wasn't ready to digest it yet.  Before they send milk down the tube, they pull up whatever is left in the tummy (goal is for 0) and examine it to see if it's green or has bile in it (both bad) or if it appears to have been in the middle of being digested.  Usually if  it's in the process of being digested they send it back down and send new stuff down with it (depending on what the resident on duty says.  By Thursday he was tolerating the breast milk alot more.
He has had a renal ultrasound, a heart echo ultrasound, and they checked his thyroid to see why his blood pressure is elevated.  All the tests have come back negative so far.  They took blood friday night to check for possible reasons.  They also started him on some BP medicine to be administered once every 6 hours if the mean of the 2 numbers is greater than 70 I believe. 
They have moved his IV a few times because the vein ends up closing up so the nutrients can get through.  They also gave him a longer gavage and put it through the nose so he can suck on a pacifier while the food goes down, getting him ready to learn how to feed from a nipple.
Friday morning his biliruben numbers were lower so they took the bililight off.  Now we can hold him more oten.

So, by the end of week 1 he is off the CPAP, tolerating breast milk so they can back off the IV, has had a few bowel movemants (only 1 without the assistance of a suppository.  He still has to get the rest of the merconium out.  As more of that comes out it makes it so that he can tolerate breastmilk more).  His weight has fluctuated but as of Friday night he was 2 oz less than his birthweight.