Monday (January 23)

Everything has been going fine.  There really hasn't been much to report so I haven't blogged much.  Silas is doing good.

He was switching between the nasal cannula and the cpap every four hours.  Then he was doing so well that they started leaving him on the cannula for six hours and the cpap for four hours at a time.  Well, then he started having some heartrate drops, but only when he was on the cpap, which is more support than the cannula.  I think this was Silas' way of saying "enough is enough!"  So, now he is strictly on the nasal cannula and no more cpap machine!  Woo hoo!  He is doing so good without it too.

He is eating and digesting well.  He had his first eye exam today.  The doctor dilated his eyes and then checked his retinas with a bright light.  Premature babies can have a lot of eye problems due to the really fragile and immature blood vessels around their retinas.  The doctors keep an eye on this (pun intended, lol) and if there is any bleeding or other problems in the back of the eye they can do laser surgery to correct it.  Silas' eyes looked fine so far.  The doctor said the test will be repeated every two weeks, just to make sure. 

Silas is now six weeks old!  But in the nicu he goes by his gestational age, which is 31 weeks.  He still shouldn't even be born for another 9 weeks.  His weight tonight was 2 pounds 11 ounces.  He was 15 1/4 inches long.  He is growing but just slowly.  When I look at him I can tell that he is a lot bigger, especially compared to when he got down to 1 pound 9 ounces.  It feels good to see some progress.

Other than that, there is not much to report.  I know there are a lot of people praying for him and that means so much to us.  Thank you!