A Very Sleepy Day
Greetings and hello to you all.
Today begins Xavier's seventh week in the NICU and his 38th calendar week. Time is definitely relative because it seems a whole lot longer than that!
Today he weighs 1275 grams (2 lb, 12.9 oz) and is 37 cm (14.57 in) long. His head circumference (I didn't even know this measurement was being taken) increased 0.5 cm since last week. As you may have noticed from the pictures, his head is Talosian in proportion, but his body is growing into it
His isolet (pod) dome remained up all through the night and Xavier did well at keeping his body's temperature at desired levels (37 C, or 98.6 F). He is wearing a hat now while the dome stays up (I would have written "a little hat", but he has outgrown his first hats, which were little!)
He had his first eye exam this morning and will have another in two weeks (and an expected two or three more after he goes home). This involved the old-fashioned technique of dilating his eyes and using a piece of equipment like a microscope to examine his retinas.
Everything looks good. His blood vessels have formed well and are close to filling out "Zone 3". At least for developmental diagnostic purposes, the retinal area of the eye is divided into three concentric, circular zones, Zone 1 the central area with the optic nerve at the center, and Zone 3 is the most outer area. When the blood vessels completely develop into Zone 3, Xavier's eyes will be considered mature. This maturing generally takes place while inside the womb, so this is good news and we thank God for it!
The eye exam did stress Xavier out quite a bit. He spent the rest of the day sleeping and was not very interactive. He slept through his PT and at his 5:00 PM cares, we left him in the pod and fed him through his NG. He was too tired even to suck his pacifier or take a bottle.
Speaking of the bottle, Xavier is a champion bottle feeder! He burned through 19 ml in record time yesterday, squeezing the nipple with authority, sucking and swallowing (gulping really). Every so often, he stops and breathes and rests, then goes right back at it! He did the same for Rebecca in his morning cares yesterday.
The doctors have some concern that Xaiver is not gaining weight as quickly as they think he should. The solution may be to increase the amount of his milk at every feeding. The doctors are not likely to increase his calorie amount as that has shown to cause weight management problems throughout life for babies who consume too many calories.
Rebecca noted that the last time Xavier was this tired, he gained nearly two ounces in a day. We are hoping that is the reason for his heavy sleep today.
Always, Thank you for your prayers.
