Top's Up
Hello to everyone.
Xavier took another step closer to coming home today. He has been doing very well with his isolet bed switched to manual and letting him regulate his body temperature. He has been keeping himself at about 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F). Today, Carrie, his day nurse, left the pod dome up after his 2:00 cares, to test him in an open crib environment.
After his 5 o'clock cares and bottle feeding by Dad, he was returned to his isolet. The environment of the pod was not kept as has been in the past (by turning on radiant heat, closing the pod, keeping up the humidity, etc). When Xavier had his temperature monitor plugged back in, he was three tenths of a degree warmer than when he came out (probably because sleeping on Dad warmed him).
Nevertheless, he maintained his temperature without assistance! Thank you, Jesus! He may need to wear his hat more often with the pod dome raised, but still he is closer to meeting his temperature self-regulation goal. The plan was to watch him through the rest of the shift (ending between 7:00 and 7:30 PM) and see how he fared. Also, keep an eye on his weight to see if he is expending too many calories keeping warm rather than growing. Our little boy is growing up so fast!
Speaking of weight and growing, Xavier dropped 15 grams since yesterday, putting him back to 1250 grams (2 lb, 12.2 oz). We are still in sight of three pounds! His daily weight fluctuations are expected and OK so long as his weekly average trends upward, which it is. His chart shows a nice curve of growth not too dissimilar from the norms, only his has smaller numbers.
It being Monday, and me being there at the right time (purely coincidental), I got to assist in measuring his length. This is done once a week, on the calendar day of his birth (Monday). This is an involved procedure.
I thought they would just lay him out and use a paper tape to measure him like they do to measure his belly girth. Nope. They have a little graduated plexiglass board. Xavier was placed on the board and the top of his head held firmly to the headboard. He did not like this and began squirming, making it difficult to get his leg straight. Once his leg was "wrestled" under control (he is getting stronger--we work up a good sweat taking his temperature at care intervals!), a slider was moved to the sole of his foot and his length read from the scale to the side of the slider. For those old enough to remember, the device looked very much like the old foot-sizing devices used in shoe stores.
He is 37 cm (14.57 in) long as of today. That's an increase of 4.5 cm (1.77 in) in six weeks.
Always, we thank you for your prayers and support.