State of the Pike Address

I've been terrible about keeping everyone updated, so I'm remedying that right now, darn it!

When Pike was first put in the NICU, he was on a breathing aide thing that blew air into his nose. This is because although his lungs were well developed, his nervous system wasn't. So he could breathe, but if he fell too deeply asleep, he'd forget to. The breathing apparatus plus caffeine kept him from falling asleep too deeply and kept reminding him to breathe. He is now off of both and breathing just fine all on his own with no reminders.

He was also on an IV to supplement what they were giving him through the feeding tube (originally in his mouth and now in his nose). Now he's on breast milk only. Yay! Yes, he's still getting most of it through the feeding tube. He's processing the food well and slowly gaining weight. One of the big things that he needs to do now is stay awake more during feedings and begin rooting/otherwise showing more interest in bottles. They're trying him on bottles now at least once a day.

Once he's taking his food more steadily from the bottles, then I'll actually get to try breast feeding. For now they are letting me do "nuzzling," which is basically just letting him be near the breast (yeah, TMI - deal) while he's getting his feeding tube meal. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he progresses quickly. Right now they won't even make guesses about when he'll be home, but we're hoping another two or three weeks.

It's hard being apart from Pike, and it makes everything a little surreal. We're parents, but our baby is so far away so much of the time. We just eager to have him with us all the time and have our little man home.