May 15, 2006

This is a pretty common picture of Zachary with his tongue sticking out. He's been more alert recently and makes cute baby noises that we love. He seems to be able to focus better and sometimes spends several minutes studying faces, his mobile, crib toys, etc.

Last week Zach had a little setback with his feeds. He threw up so much one evening that the doctors were concerned there may be a more serious problem. They restricted his feeds and put him back on IV nourishment. Since then they have slowly increased him back to full feeds which he has tolerated well and takes most of it from the bottle!

Zach's CO2 was slightly elevated last week so the doctors decided to try another round of steroids. He's getting a decreased dose every 3 days. His blood gas results have been looking better. They've talked about trying "sprints" on nasal canula where they take him off of the CPAP and put him on canula for short periods of time to see how he tolerates it.

A few babies who have been in the NICU for a long time have recently gone home. It was nice to see them go to be with their families and made us more excited for the day Zach will come home with us. For now he is the veteran of the unit having been there 3 1/2 months and just got his corner spot by the windows back so Clayton will be able to see him again! :)

Thank you for being patient as we haven't updated in awhile. We'll do our best to update again soon.