Our Little Rangers

I fall more and more in love with this little man every time I see him!!

Ryan is doing AMAZING! His feedings have been increased to 12.5mls every 3 hours. They increased his calories to 22. His blood gasses were good this morning. He has been having a CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the 50’s and today he was down to the 40’s. The doctor was able to decrease his rate on the vent to 33! His oxygen saturation has been doing well also. When is he stimulated his sats drop less and less each time. Right now he is staying no less than 80% and often he stays in the 90’s.

He is now in a size bigger diaper! He was in the tiny tiny Barbie doll diapers and now he “fits” in the bigger white diapers!! It was so neat to see him in his snuggly today and realize that he now fits in the bigger size diapers!!!

I wasn’t able to touch him much this weekend but today we were back to our ‘normal’ routine. Ryan held his temp beautifully today and we had his ‘house’ open for longer than an hour! He never had a temp drop!

He seems to love to interact. I’m not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow when I go back to work. He has gotten used to Gammie, Sissy, and Mommy spending lunch with him. Here he is one of his favorite places. . . .In all of our ‘arms.’

His weight was down slightly last night. He now weighs 630gram. That is 1lb 6oz. This is a normal drop in weight. We were told once premies are transitioned from IV nutrition to oral feeds only that they often have a small drop in weight.

On the other hand he has grown!! The nurse measured him while we were in with him and he measured 12 ¼ inches!!! He has grown a ½ inch in one week!!! I cannot tell you how much he amazes me every day!!

I was able to pick Ryan up and hold him in my hands for just a bit today! When his nurse changed his snuggly and his sheet she allowed me to help.

I selfishly “stole” a kiss while I held him!

Ryan had his first cloths on today! This micro-premie onsie still swallows him whole!

We had such a good visit with Ryan today! I have to be honest. I needed today. Tomorrow I am returning to work and have been dreading changing our routine. I will be within just a few minutes away if I’m needed but it is still the principal of the situation. I hate that I have to care for other things instead of being available for him whenever needed. I know this will be the first of many times that I will have to be away from him . . . I’m just so thankful that we had a wonderful nurse who encouraged us to spend a good amount of quality time with Ryan today!!