wowza. so many good things happened today that it’s going to be hard to summarize them into an easy to digest nugget. after eleven long days on the ventilator we were quite surprised ( as were many of the nurses ) that the neonatologists decided that eric was ready to be free of the vent. apparently his right lung looked much better than anticipated after this morning’s x-ray and the doctor’s decided that he was recovered enough from pneumonia to give the cpap a try. woohoo! and you know what that means – we can hold him again! here, nurse peggy is handing him off to kris for a little kangaroo care.

despite getting the great news that he was back on cpap and therefore able to be held, everyone thought that he would only be able to stand small amounts of kangaroo care. nurse peggy watched his stats carefully after the transfer for 5 minutes. then 10. then 15. and 20. until she finally decided that eric was doing better off the vent than on. he did spectacularly for an hour, with not a single alarm, and he was only put back in the radiant warming bed when kris decided that she had to go pump breastmilk. it was quite and accomplishment as he’s still has pneumonia. his breathing was as stable as you could ever want it, which is impressive because babies can sometimes get lazy after being on vent, as the machine does much of the work for them.

after an hour of kangaroo care from mama i was able to hold him “regular style” ( i had no idea that he’d go off the vent today so i didn’t wear clothing appropriate for kangaroo care ) for a half an hour. fun! (

as if all the great news about him getting off the vent and getting kangaroo care wasn’t enough to absorb for one day, nurse peggy announced that he’d be getting his first shirt!

it’s a sign that his caregivers think that he’s getting more stable than ever, since it means that they aren’t so preoccupied with having to see how mottled or flushed his skin is at any particular moment. i picked a very stylish blue pinstriped top.

and last, but certainly not least, eric hit a big milestone today by officially doubling his birthweight. he weighed in at 1335 grams or 2 pounds 15.1 ounces!

it’s hard to believe that he only needs to gain about an ounce to hit 3 pounds. it seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating the 2 pound milestone. gaining so much weight while fighting pneumonia is an impressive feat.

they grow up so fast!

wow! wow! wow! after eleven days of hardship, it’s really exciting to have to much good news to report.

random aside – i realized tonight that i hadn’t got a shot of a ritual that occurs every 3 days – the measuring of eric’s head. since the last measurement, his head grew a half a centimeter and is now 27 centimeters in circumference.