eric’s making it all look so easy. he’s on 6 cc’s an hour of breastmilk and they aren’t pulling out any undigested fluid from his stomach so his digestive track appears to be working well. i forgot to mention that he’s begun pooping on his own. for the first few weeks they had to help out him out by giving what must have been a very small suppository, but i think he’s pooping all by himself now. sniff. they grow up so fast. not much change in his “orders” other than they’ve officially moved him to 4 hours of CPAP and 4 hours of the nasal cannula. and he’s in room air with no supplemental ‘oooohs’ ( oxygen ). at this rate i suspect he’ll be on the cannula full-time quite soon, which is yet another great step forward.

i don’t get to spend as much time in the nicu these days, but kris is on constant vigil and he had over 4 hours of kangaroo care with her, in addition to my paltry 1.5 hours. prayers and good thoughts, genetics and fantastic nicu care notwithstanding, i think that all the ‘roo time is having a trememdous impact on his overall health.

one of the sensory pleasures of the nicu is provided by the heating element that’s placed above him in his radiant warming bed. the heating element helps eric keep his body temperature in a normal range and it glows more or less brightly depending on how well eric is bundled and whether or not eric’s bed is enclosed in plastic wrap. if you’re taking pictures or reading or talking to eric, the heating element really kicks in and it can get uncomfortably hot. you might discover that if you’ve had no sleep on 20 cups of coffee and nothing but a slice of toast to get you through breakfast lunch and dinner that leaning under the radiant heating element might make you feel a little funny. so you might decide to bide time by taking a “mirror” shot while wondering how many mirror project submissions are from people looking at themselves looking at a radiant warmer. prolly not many.

this is what the radiant warmer looks like from eric’s perspective.

i guess since micropreemies like looking at patterns with lots of contrast that he just might find it appealing.

as you’re grasping the bed trying to maintain your stability, what with being baked under the radiant heating element and sweating caffeine, you realize that you’ve seen this caution message a thousand times while continually pondering what “insensible water loss” means. later, google will provide the answer as it usually does.