6 weeks, 34 adjusted

 Another big week for Marco!

Weight: 4 pounds 6 oz. He's starting to get a (very small) bit of chub on him and I'm loving it so much.

Milestone reached: We moved to a crib from the incubator! So proud of my little warrior. They were able to continuously lower his incubator (giraffe) temperature until it matched the outside air, and then yesterday they tried out the crib. Hopefully he'll be able to hold steady and maintain heat. Fingers crossed.

Other medical stuff: 

Breathing he's doing well - they've lowered his support to a level 3 CPAP (I forget what that means). Once he is down to level 2 he'll be able to try breast feeding or bottle feeding - which they expect will be in about another week. Hopefully I can stay off dairy long enough to give it a shot! (I had a solid 7 days of success and then we had a mistaken egg and cheese sandwich incident - grumble)

Infections - somehow Marco got a staph infection this past week in his eyes/ear. They gave him drops to heal it and don't seem too worried, but the care team now has to gown up every time they treat him. Speaking of gowning up...

COVID - on top of everything else we've had to deal with these past months, my middle child (so weird saying that) tested positive for COVID this week from a rapid test. Then he tested negative two days later from a PCR. Not knowing which test to trust, we error on the side of caution and started quarantining. No one really knows what to do and every doctor has a different opinion. The rest of my family tested negative, my husband and I are vaccinated, and my son had very minor symptoms (common cold) - so it really was a toss up if he actually had the virus. One doc said get another rapid b/c PCRs are not accurate this soon, another said get another PCR bc that will cancel out the rapid if negative, yet another said not to get tested at all but to just ride it out, our local Health Department said they trust the PCR and declared him negative, the NICU said we had to quarantine for the normal 10 days +, everyone said that I didnt need to quarantine bc I'm vaccinated. It's a mess. And it was a crazy rollercoaster ride of emotion. 

Short story - we're treating it like COVID and following standard protocol - which means I haven't seen Marco in a week. It's a bit heartbreaking, but I know he's in great hands and I'll see him on Monday - cannot wait.




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