Day 79

Jaxson is 79 days old today. He weighs 7 lbs 9.2 oz! He is my little porker! He has continued to get good reports the last few days. He is getting a special formula called EleCare. The pharmacy in the hospital makes it for him. It costs $100 a day, which we don't have to pay now since it will be included in his hospital bill. However, we are hoping he doesn't have to come home on this formula. I talked to our insurance company yesterday and we would be responsible for paying for it up front. We have to buy it by the case, which is $600 weekly. They will reimburse us 80%, and I am calling to talk to someone about the possibility of Medicaid covering the remainder. He is getting 15cc (=1/2 oz) every 3 hours. Yesterday, the doctor decided to try giving it to him through a bottle if his breathing was less than 70 breaths per minute. The doctor said he would like to try to have him up to enough food by the end of the week to remove his PICC line (the IV where he gets his supplemental nutrition). We are keeping our fingers crossed and saying extra prayers for that to happen. He is going to continue giving Jaxson antiobiotics until Thursday, but says he shows no real symptoms of infection/sepsis. His platelets are continuing to increase on their own. They were at 77 yesterday. His GI doctor came by today, and said they are starting him on Reglan to help with his reflux. Reglan is the same medication they use with many pregnant women to help with acid reflux. It was the first medication they tried me on when I was having morning sickness. Essentially, it moves food through your body faster, so it doesn't just sit in your tummy and make you feel sick. The thing I'm worried about is it doesn't allow your body to time to absorb all the nutrients it needs. Hmm... maybe the reason I continued to lose weight while pregnant... I don't want Jaxson to miss out on valuable nutrients. I sure the doctors know what they're doing, and lots of babies take Reglan. I guess I'm just worrying about it a little too much. Anyway, I asked his GI doctor about the possibility of him starting on breastmilk, since we have almost 900 bags stored up and counting. Dr. Mestre said they are just going to watch him for the next 3-4 weeks and see how he does on the EleCare, and maybe they'll switch him to breastmilk before he comes home. If I understood everything correctly, he might get to come home by the last week in July or the first week in August! At least we have some sort of goal now! It makes me excited! He will be about 18 weeks old, and if he continues to grow about the same rate he's been growing, he'll be 12 1/2 lbs! It's a good think I left the tags on most of his clothes. Looks like I'll be taking some more stuff back to exchange for big boy stuff!!!

They also turned him down to 1 liter on his oxygen. If he had to come home on oxygen (which we're praying he won't), this is the kind he would come home on. He was completely off oxygen for several days before, so we hope he can prove himself again! He hasn't had any A's and B's for almost 2 weeks now, so he has already completed the 8 day countdown. Preemies have to go at least 8 days without dropping their heartrate and having apnea episodes. He won't have to complete another countdown for that, so now we're just waiting on his feeding to get better!

We bought him some toys this week. That gives him something to do during the day. Many people think babies who are born early are often developmentally delayed, but I think it's because they're not stimulated enough. Even full term babies can be developmentally delayed if they don't have any think to stimulate development. We took him some toys and the nurse said I could bring his bouncy seat and his Bumbo for him to sit in. We don't want to limit his potential because he's in the hospital. Lots of smart people were preemies... Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton are two great examples!

We love you all so much, and thank God for each prayer that is prayed. From young to old, we know He hears them all! We hope our little sweetie continues to touch your lives as much as he's touched ours. He continues to impress us every day! Thank you so much for following Jaxson's story.