7 weeks, 35 adjusted

 A slow and steady week, ending with an exciting development- we’re finally at a low enough air support to try oral feeding!


We’ve been slowly weaning Marco from breathing support with the next big milestone goal of getting down to a level 2 air flow. He's been at 3 for awhile, and they've tried lowering with no luck. So this past week, the doctors decided that he may have water in his lungs which was preventing him from being able to fully breathe. This is supposedly common for preemies but still a bit scary to hear.

To remedy this, they put him on a diuretic - essentially draining him of all his excess liquid. Some water weight lost this week - he's down to 4pds 11oz from 4pds 15oz, but it was successful! By Friday he was down to a level 2 flow and holding steady... which means when I get back from MDW with my parents I'll be able to try and breast feed!

At first he won't be strong enough to do more than one or two feedings per day, but I'm super excited. Now I've just got to stick to my dairy/soy free diet... on a weekend away with my Italian family... with baked ziti, eggplant parm, pizza, cheeseburgers, ravioli. He's worth it. Right?

Other medical stuff - routine monthly eye exam went well. Preemies sometimes have undeveloped eyes and therefore have issues, but so far so good for our Marco. Monthly brain scan also went well - still no brain bleeds.

Other things on my mind - due to our COVID scare last week, I had a long weekend away with just my older boy at my (vaccinated) parent's house so that we could limit exposure to my sick son. It was the best "vacation" of my life and exactly what I needed to reset, recharge and feel like myself again. I was still working, but with only my older son, I got to sleep in and had very little stress. Plus I wasn't allowed to visit Marco, so did not feel guilty there. My husband also felt like he had a vacation with only our middle child. Seriously, forget going away together on vacation, from now on my husband and I are just going to split the kids up and take a few days enjoying one-kid heaven... oh wait, we're going to have 3 at home soon. Hmmm.

That's it for the week - stay tuned for a (hopefully) successful week of oral feeding!





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