Drumroll for Some Pomp and Circumstance

On Friday afternoon, JD, KD, and I went up to visit AJ together. Thanks to a cold, followed by an ear infection, followed by a secondary respiratory infection, it had been 4+ weeks since KD had seen her brother.

As we walked past the nurses' station, we saw a familiar activity taking place. When a baby is close to being sent home, nurses start coloring and signing the baby's NICU Diploma. They set it out early enough so that all the nurses that cared for that particular baby can write some well wishes. We always look at these diplomas longingly, dreaming of the day we might see one for AJ. We stopped in our tracks when we saw this:

A Good Sign

We still haven't heard any specifics about a discharge date so we were shocked to see a diploma started for our AJ. You can imagine the flood of emotions we felt upon seeing this.

AJ is 7 pounds, 6.9 ounces. His nurse today said that he doesn't even look like a preemie. I love hearing comments like that. He looks like a pretty big boy in this picture. One of the nurses found a swing that someone had donated to the NICU and set it up for him.

Big Enough for a Swing

Today was a busy day for AJ. I was there for his 9am and 12pm feeding. When we try to nurse, we always weigh AJ before and after to determine how much volume he has taken in. At 9am, he was quite sleepy so the before and after weights indicated a gain of 2 grams only (roughly equivalent to 2 mL and he is supposed to take in 62 mL for an entire feeding). So, not the best session but good practice. At 11:30, we gave him a bath and then he was wide awake and alert. Then at the noon feeding, he nursed 28 mL which was a personal best and drew cheers from the nurses. JD was there for the 3 pm feeding but AJ had just been given his 2 month vaccinations and was too tired to bottle feed so JD gave him his feeding through a syringe and his NG tube.

Here is AJ being held for the first time by one of his grandparents:

Nurses have been asking if I am in nesting mode. Unfortunately, I haven't truly experienced nesting with either pregnancy because of prolonged hospitalization. Thankfully, our good friends, RH and ZM#5, painted AJ's room while I was in the hospital and my parents put up this sport-themed border so that was one less nesting activity to be done.

Instead, my nesting looks more like this:

Just a short update for today but here is one more picture. KD doing her best to feed herself yogurt. Notice the spoon off to the side. Why use a spoon when both hands are so much easier to use?