Hungry Little Dude. Second good day in a row.

So our little man had another pretty darn good day today. He has been steadily increasing in his feeding amount. They started him at 5 mL and now he's up to 20 mL. woohoo! When he gets to 40 mL in a feeding then they take the IV out and he's only on breastmilk. That is, if I can keep pumping enough to stay ahead of his little appetite. He even nursed for a while today before his feeding, and although he's little, he's a little trooper and he's trying.

His bradys (heart rate drops) have been decreasing in number and duration, which is excellent news. He has to go five straight days without any Bradys before he can go home, so we like to see positive progress.

His bilirubin levels yesterday (his first day off phototherapy) were up from 6.6 to 9.6. So we were thinking today he'd have to be back on the lights. But today when they tested his levels it was only 10.3, so the doctors decided to watch and see what the levels do tomorrow. Hopefully our little guy has turned the corner and the levels will start to go down on their own.

In another positive improvement, his next door neighbor was quite a screamer, and that baby went home today so our little man has a slightly more calm environment in which to do the hard work of growing.

And today I did three hours of kangaroo care with him. It was totally amazing. Although it is decidedly less convenient than doing it at home. Because premies can't tolerate too much stimulation, you can't just move them around as much as you like. So once they are settled, you can have them for as long as they do well. But lets say you, for example, are starving and have to pee like crazy? well then you have to decide whether you want more time with your kid, or if you want to answer the call of nature. Because you have to give up one to have the other. So naturally I ignored the rumbly tummy and just kept cuddling our little man.

Yesterday I also checked out a book from the hospital's library on premies. I suppose it is the grad student in me, but knowledge is a soothing thing. And I had been doing all this reading on pregnancy (you know, the kind that goes to 40 weeks) and babies (also the kind that grew to 40 weeks) and breastfeeding (a kid who was 40 weeks developed) and a whole lot of that well intentioned preparation went straight out the window when the rules of the game got changed. So now reading about premies. And the big thing I learned last night was about not over stimulating them. Keeping noise levels low, lights low. Light touches like we are instinctively inclined to give term babies is too much stimulation for premies and upsets them. They find firm, somewhat confining touches comforting, so resting a hand on their rump or head is comforting, stroking is too much.