Day 48

His first outfit!! Way too big even though it is a preemie!

Today Hayden is having another great day! He has not had any more events since he went off his oxygen almost a week ago! He has some ups and downs with his heart rate and oxygen but he has learned now how to bring it back up all by himself and without any help! So he has made great great progress!!

Tomorrow he will be seven weeks old!! YAY! And on Wednesday his gestational age will be 33 weeks. That leaves seven more weeks till his due date. So if he has to stay until his approximate release date (which is his due date) then we have made it halfway through his hospital stay as of Wednesday. He may be able to leave a couple of weeks early if he keeps doing well, but they have told us not to expect that, to expect his due date instead of getting our hopes up.

Bathtime!

He is doing so well with his breathing that there is nothing more to report. He is not needing oxygen and he seems to have learned how to breathe all by himself. So please keep praying that he will continue to do well and continue to stay off his oxygen. His feedings are still continuous but tomorrow they are going to switch back to what they call bolus feedings. This means that they will run his feeding pump over a period of two hours and then give him an hour break before they start another feeding. It just helps his body learn how to get his feedings all at once instead of getting small amounts continuously. They are hoping this will also help him prepare for bottle feedings because he has to be able to get his food into his stomach once every three hours before he can bottle feed. So this is a good step in the right direction and hopefully he will take it well and his problem with reflux will be resolved.

He weighs 3 lbs. and 2 oz. again and they are happy that he has gained that weight back. They said he needs to be about 4 lbs. to 4 and a half before he will be big enough to get out of his isolette and maintain his own body temperature.

Mommy giving Hayden a bath.

We feel like he has made so much progress! They told us when he was born that he had to accomplish 4 major things before he could go home 1.) He had to be able to breathe on his own, 2.) He had to be able to eat on his own, 3.) He had to be big enough to keep up his own body temperature, 4.) He had to be able to do all three of these things at the same time. So far he has accomplished one out of four of these things and he is well on his way to accomplishing the other three. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and keep us in your prayers as well that we will have strength to make it through the other half of his hospital stay. We love you all!!



Tim, Hilary, and Hayden