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the eric update – day 50: eric’s first tub bath! and even more nasal cannula.

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day 50: eric's first tub bath. I.

the big news today was that eric got to have his first tub bath after weeks of “spit baths” with a washcloth. micropreemies are often none to impressed with bathing, as it just makes them cold, so it’s interesting to see his reponse. at first he seems like he might get quite unhappy with with the whole bathing thing, but he eventually settled in an waited patiently for it to be over. all the bathing was quite tiring, so after playing with a new toy that kris bought, he looked around for a bit and quickly fell fast asleep.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. II.

yes, it really does take that many people to bath a micropreemie, what with all the sensors and IV lines

day 50: eric's first tub bath. III.

at first, eric’s not too impressed with the whole bath experience.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. IV.

mama gets ready to apply some soap. he’s settled down at the point, resigned to fact that he’s not getting out of the bath anytime soon.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. V.

“you know, it’s fun and all to have so many women being so attentive, but could you pick up the pace a bit, as i’m getting pretty cold.”

day 50: eric's first tub bath. VI.

he’s getting dried off and decides that he’d like to hold the “graspy” toy that mama bought for him just a few hours earlier.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. VII.

getting a bath can be a very tiring event, so he has to try very, very hard to keep his eyes open.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. VIII.

yaaaawwwwwwwnnnnn. sleepy.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. IX.

or maybe not so sleepy. he puts off sleep for a few more moments and looks right at me.

day 50: eric's first tub bath. X.

o.k. yeah. i guess he really was sleepy afterall.

he’s up to 8 hours of nasal cannula, followed by 2 hours of cpap and handling it wonderfully, with very few alarms. i’d expect them to test out 24 hours of the nasal cannula very soon.

he’s still having trouble digesting the breastmilk as quickly as they’d like and he’ll typically have an alarm or two after feeding. the alarms after feeding are from the weight of the food in his stomach pressing on his vagus nerve, which helps to maintain his heartrate. the fact that his food isn’t moving along as fast as they’d like is aggravating the situation. at this point, there’s not much they can do, except watch him closely and obey the signs that he’s sending to take it slow with the feedings.

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