T Minus....

First off, I have to make a side comment. Jay and I watched Avatar last night (I didn't see it when it was out). And I have to say, it wasn't awful! It was actually entertaining and the effects were quite spectacular. So that was a pleasant surprise. I will say, the dialogue was fairly painful. But good nonetheless. Ok, onto today's update.

Leo is now on "on demand" feedings. No, that doesn't mean he can download movies to his crib...it does, however, mean that he no longer is fed automatically every 3 hours. He is now fed when he's hungry! Imagine that! Just like a regular newborn. So it could be every 2, 3 or 4 hours. They won't go more than 4 hours even if he hasn't been making noises that he's hungry. So as a result, they've removed his feeding tube since each feeding now needs to be on a nipple of some sort. This is a very big move for him because if he does well this is the fast track to high-tailing it out of there and on home. It's conceivable now that if he does well he could, in fact, be home next weekend on his due date.

He was also weened further on the oxygen front today. So he's on the lowest whiff possible before they shut it off altogether. Hopefully sometime this week he'll be off the O2 altogether. Yippee!!

So this means that Jay and I will be doing our "room in" overnight training session sometime this week...presuming he continues to do well and doesn't have a setback. Let the learning (and comedy) begin. So this is where Jay and I sleep over at the hospital, Leo's in our room and we take care of him all night, as we will when he's home. The nurses are there for emergencies only. Training wheels if you will. This could be any night in the next few days. It's all just fast and furious now. And all because we asked! It's funny what happens when you start to advocate for your care. Crazy. I just happened to mention today to the nurse "what would happen if we went off of the protocol and went to on demand feedings?" And she said "well, I think we could do that. How about starting today?" Um, ok. Thanks for proactively offering there chief. Sorry, putting away the snark.

And here are a few more pictures from this morning. Check him out in his newborn sized clothes!! The preemie stuff doesn't fit anymore. Craziness. He's all of 5 lbs, 10 ounces now. Slowly getting towards 6. Go Leo!