eric had another great day today. he’s up to 6 cc’s per hour on his feeds and tolerating them extremely well. he weighed in a 1 pound 10.8 ounces which means after losing a little over the past day or so, he gained a full ounce in the past 24 hours. i think we’ll be getting close to being able to reliable count down to when he’ll hit the 2 pound mark, which will be a big milestone. they also been alternating between his CPAP ( the face mask ) and the nasal cannula ( the nose tubes ). his “orders” dictated that he was to be alternated on the CPAP for 6 hours and N.C. for 2 hours, but due to a unexpected change in the plan he was was on the nasal cannula for 5 hours today and didn’t start throwing an excessive amount of alarms. since the cannula takes more effort on his part, this means that he’s even stronger than his care plan might otherwise indicate.

the nurses are becoming a little more unguarded in their assessments of how well eric is doing. all the praise is followed with the necessary caveats, but you can tell that they are very, very, very(!) happy with how well he is doing.

of course, we’re tremendously grateful for the comments on his progress, if a bit apprehensive about the possibility of potential downturns.

we were “kicked out” tonight several times because of the number of new admits ( visitors aren’t allowed when newcomers are brought in ). i wasn’t there at the time, but kris met one of the new dads who was getting a tour of the nicu as his wife was being prepped for the delivery of a 27 weeker.

the nurses showed him eric in an attempt to let him see how well a baby born so soon can do, and he could only muster a gasp as he tried to take it all in.