3 weeks old!

Things are finally looking up after a frustrating week. Mason has been struggling with his breathing and having a lot of desat/apnea episodes. It is always during his feedings and seems to be caused by the reflux. The medication (zantac) hasn't helped much, so the doctor decided to add a thickening agent to his breast milk to see if it would help 'keep it down'. So far, it is really working!! He took almost a full bottle on Saturday and Sunday (previous bottle attempts ended almost immediately because of the reflux). He is also much more comfortable during his tube feedings and has had very few breathing episodes since they added the thickener. He did so well that they removed his nasal cannula on Sunday, so he is completely breathing on his own again! We are so relieved to be making progress!

Now that he's doing better with the bottle, we're going to start 2 bottle/breast feedings per day, with the rest of his feedings going through the tube. And then we will gradually increase his bottle feedings until he no longer needs the tube. He really enjoys the bottle and gets upset when it's taken away, so hopefully it won't take too long. He's also gaining weight consistently- he is currently 4lbs, 15oz and gaining about an ounce per day. We hope he hits 5lbs tonight!

So, the good news is we're a few steps closer to coming home, but he still has a ways to go. The criteria for coming home are that he has to take all bottle feedings (8 per day), consistently gain weight, and go several days with no desat/apnea episodes. We probably have a few more weeks to go, but we're moving in the right direction.