Well today is Sunday which means I was unable to go see Greyson today. Stacy got up early and went for the 8am and noon care times. She tells me today was good day and that Greyson was very alert and active. While she was there the nurse had her put on a glove and stick her finger in his mouth to see how he would do with his sucking reflex. Stacy said he did really good and she was amazed at how powerful his little jaws are as he chomped down on her finger while sucking.
Greyson is also getting very strong neck muscles. We are amazed at how he is able to turn his head even with all the tubing he is attached to. Today they set him up so he is lying on his back with the tubing secured behind him. This allows him to turn his head from side to side without the risk of extubating himself. If he will stay facing straight up it should help him with his pancake head shape that he is developing from only laying on the sides of his head.
Today he saw the eye Dr (after Stacy had already left). They didn’t really say how he did but did tell us that the report was that he has level 2 Retinopothy of Prematurity. Basically this means he has moderate growth of abnormal blood vessels in his eyes. At this stage they will simply check him every couple weeks. Most kids do fine and go on to have normal vision. By checking every couple of weeks they will be able to tell if it is advancing, and if it does they are able to do some laser treatments that should protect his vision. Basically the worst that happens if they have to do the laser treatment is they loose a bit of their periphial vision.
They are continuing to ween the pressure of the vent by 1 every 12 hours and so far his gasses continue to be decent. We are unsure when they might try to ween the rate but the nurse said his lungs sounded really good, much better than last week.
His weight was 3 lb 3 ounces tonight. They raised his feeding to 8.5 ml an hour this morning, which if you are paying attention might seem a little strange. Yesterday he was at 9 ml an hour but during the night they cut him back to 8 for 12 hours. Then this morning they raised him back up. He continues to look really good and it probably won’t be to much longer before he will begin gaining real weight again.