Tough Guy

Our little man is wearing clothes. Isn't he so cute?!? Nathaniel is doing really great! He is now trying two bottles a day and is up to 25cc without spitting it up afterwards. YEAH!!! FYI...30cc is 1 ounce. He takes everything else through his feeding tube, the one last "tube" he has to have. Nathaniel also has to keep a good IV just in case. This is harder than it sounds, his IV's only stay good for 2-3 days if we're lucky and then he gets poked again. He is a master at getting angry and turning purple-not a plus for any baby but especially not a "Norwood" baby. He likes sucrose and music to calm down. I asked the doctors today what needs to happen so that Nathaniel can come home. The answer...hopefully we'll get him off of the feeding tube. We don't know how long that will take but are very hopeful that he will continue to increase the volume on the bottle and also increase his overall volume. The doctors are concerned about his weight and calorie intake right now so they are gradually increasing the amount of milk received. He is up to 63cc every three hours over 90 minutes. We have finally got him on a milk free diet which we believe is making a difference in the spitting/throwing up. We realized last weekend that he was getting a milk-based formula supplement with the breast milk. I'm off dairy for his benefit but it was getting counteracted by the supplement. It's been a couple of days now and he is doing much better. We continue to be grateful for everything, the small things keep adding up to BIG things.