A Date on Friday Night

Mama and Daddy had a romantic dinner for two at the DQ drive-through on the way to the NICU last night. We were in a hurry to get there on time for one of our favorite shared activities: bathing the boy. You can view some pre-bath action video here. See Daddy clean-up spit just before being sprayed by pee-pee from precious progeny - priceless.

Here is Samson, post-bath, wrapped in his Swaddle Me. The nurses call this the "Burrito Baby" look. It's very fashionable in the NICU.

Day 20 Status Report:
- Weight: 4.5 lbs
- IV removed! Now only 4 wires attached, all painless sensors to monitor heart rate, temp, blood oxygen saturation, and... I forget the other one.
- Antibiotics complete. Now only receiving caffeine for apnea, and this will be weaned before he comes home.
- Feeding: 40 cc every 3 hours, still 2 nipple feeds/day. Breast milk is fortified with some additional calories and vitamins to help with weight gain.
- Officially entering "feeder/grower" status at 21 days post-delivery (35 weeks gestational age). This means that his job is to eat well and get fatter (how can I get that gig?)

There's a great deal of jargon in the preemie/NICU world. If we ever use a term here that doesn't make sense, dear reader, check out this glossary from the Tiny Miracles Foundation.