Breathing, Eating, and Crying

Breathing: Matthew was extubated today around noon. He's back on CPAP and so far doing well. The doctors said that the first 48 hours is really critical. If babies make it past that point, it's generally smooth sailing. In case you haven't memorized this entire site, here's a quick recap on his breathing history. He's been on a ventilator virtually 100% of the time since he was born about 8 weeks ago. He's spent about half the time on a conventional ventilator, and the other half of the time on a high frequency ventilator. He's been on CPAP twice during that time, but only lasted 9 hours the first time and only 5 hours the second time. He's quite a big bigger now than he was then, so we're hopeful that the third time's the charm. He definitely doesn't seem to be working as hard this time as he has been, so it's certainly a possibility.

Eating: Surprisingly, they also resumed his feeding today. They've started him at 5ml every 3 hours, but will probably quickly ramp him back up to full feeds as long as he doesn't show any negative signs. They told us before that full feeds for a preemie is 160ml/kg/day, but before they stopped the feeds the last time, he was being fed more like 180ml/kg/day. Given his current weight (as of two nights ago), that would be more like 32ml every 3 hours.

Crying: Now that Matthew's been extubated, you can hear his little vocal chords. He can't get much volume yet, but at least he doesn't look like a mime crying anymore.