Leaps and Bounds

So...we may need to kick things into high gear to get ready for the little one to come home. Today was a day of milestones for Chase, and he potentially may be able to come home a lot sooner than we expected!

He had his first eye exam before I arrived this morning. The retina of a preemie is only partially formed, and an exam is completed to see if the blood vessels are developing appropriately. Most preemies born before 31 wks are tested for ROP, and may require follow-up exams. Chase's exam results showed vessels that one would expect to see in a preemie, but at this time nothing was abnormal so he won't need to be retested for a few weeks.

The biggest news of the day however, is that I was able to nurse Chase for the first time! During rounds we were having a conversation about the requirements to move him to a crib, and what body temperature range he would need to maintain etc. The neonatologist asked if we had tried to nipple him yet-besides trying a pacifier every once in a while that had been about it. Using a pacifier doesn't require coordinating sucking, swallowing, and breathing all at once so its obviously much easier. So we decided to give it a shot after I pumped for his next scheduled feeding.

The nurse prepped me that he may not be that interested or even be able to demonstrate much of the necessary skills since he is still less than 32 wks. She reminded me a few times before starting not to be discouraged, and then she helped get me all situated. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing! After I got over the fact that the issue was probably going to be more my coordination than his, we used a syringe to squirt some milk in his mouth to get him going. He still had his feeding tube in(he will continue to have this until he is able to take full feedings from either me or the bottle) but it didn't seem to bother him. Although he was slow to start, he surprisingly had no issues latching or sucking. He would tire out after a few seconds, take a break, and then start again. The nurse was shocked that he did so well and she let me feed him for 15 minutes. I was so excited and I kept telling him how proud I was of him, I wish Jas had been there!

So the long and short of it is that he is making so much progress they said he might be able to come home earlier than anticipated. Maybe in another month or less! Crap we have a lot of work to do...

One more thing- Jas talked to the doc while I was actually at my own eye doctor's appt. today; and at this time he does not want to move toward ligation for the PDA! Driving to the hospital this morning I was mentally prepped that surgery was the direction in which we were moving. Guess he's surprising us all:) He only had 4 bradys all day yesterday, and 1 today as of this afternoon so it could be that his symptoms are resolving themselves as he ages. We know we still have a long road ahead of us, and there will most likely still be bumps(I'm teary as I type this because I'm so happy right now), but our little man is a fighter and he just didn't want to wait til the end of August to come home!