Next Steps

At this point Bennett is doing really well.  Everyone is really surprised at his great progress.  So what's next?  

To move from the Cardiac ICU to "the floor" he needs to be able to maintain his temperature outside of the isolette.  I guess he's doing this well, because they started opening the isolette up last night, and tonight he was moved to a regular crib!  He also needs to be either 2 kilos or 2.2 kilos.  The doctor we spoke with yesterday couldn't remember which it was.  Currently he's right around 2 kilos, but if he has to be 2.2, that means he needs to gain about half a pound.

At some point he needs to learn to take food orally.  I'm not sure if that is a skill he needs to learn before he is moved or if he can learn that when he's on the floor.  We attempted breastfeeding today, but he was pretty sleepy.  But he got to taste some milk in his mouth.  We just need to get him to learn to latch.

As an aside, in everything I've read, I've seen how pacifiers are bad for babies if you want them to breastfeed.  Apparently that's not the case with preemies- especially in Bennett's case where for about two weeks now he hasn't taken any food orally.  The pacifiers are good because they help them learn to suck.  So I guess I have to bite my words (and the urge to throw one out today) and let him have it.

In regards to Bennett's feeding, he was being fed continuous breastmilk through a feeding tube.  Today they changed it from continuous to bolus feeding.  This means they are now timing it to get him used to having a full and then empty stomach.  So they are feeding him every three hours, but to start off that feed took an hour and a half.  When we left they had cut it back to an hour and 15 minutes, and they will continue to shorten the time it takes to feed him until they get to half hour feeds.

Once he is moved to the floor, we're almost home.  He likely will only be there for a few days for us to learn how to  do all of his care.

Once he is discharged, we will probably be back monthly for follow-up with the cardiologist, and depending on how he is doing, that will be changed to less frequently.

So the end is in sight.  We don't know exactly how long it will be, but probably he'll be going home in the next couple of weeks.  Yay, Bennett!