Day 31 - Samuel Update

Today was Samuel's one month birthday! He is doing well today. They actually took his "picc line" out a couple of days ago (the day that I posted last) so he no longer has the central line and IV in his arm. He is now having bowel movements on his own!! Hooray! They only give him suppositories if he doesn't have a bowel movement within a 12 hour time period but he hasn't needed them for the last 24 hours or so. Today they changed his feedings from continuous to intermittent. Over a two hour time frame they feed him 30 mls of fortified breast milk and then they stop for an hour. So basically, every 3 hours, they start feeding him and stop after two hours and then he gets a break for an hour. My mom and I visited him today and he was sitting at 38% oxygen on the cpap. Within the last few days there have been times where he'll tolerate 35% for a small length of time and a couple of mornings ago he tolerated 28% for an hour, but typically he likes 40% which is what he has been at since he got off the vent for the 2nd time. I just called the nurse a few minutes ago and now she has him at 36%. I was talking to the doctor this morning and he said that as far as his lungs go, he doesn't see any improvement and this is the one time that I am disagreeing with him. I think he is showing progress by tolerating less oxygen assistance even if it is for short periods of time. Especially today, I think he is showing progress. He started at 38% at 12pm and now he's at 36% almost 6 hours later and he is tolerating it fine. Baby steps is all I can say. Literally, baby steps! He's our little trooper. Oh, Samuel now weighs 3 lbs 5 oz (he lost 1 oz overnight which is to be expected considering that he's on diaretics) and he is 15.5 inches in length. He has gained 1 lb 2 oz since birth and has grown 2 inches! That's our boy!