Quick Update - EIGHT WEEKS OLD

I'm back home on a late flight from Minnesota tonight and thought I would give a quick update. Gus is eight weeks old today. It is hard to believe that eight Sunday nights ago he came into our lives, but here it is. His two month birthday is on April 26th, which is also hard to believe.

Here is a picture for Evan with Gus' belly button in it. Jill took this picture yesterday and I think it is Gus having a big yawn - either that or he is singing opera.

I talked to Gus' nurse Sherri this evening and he has gained about another ounce today. I did the quick gram conversion and he is now up to 3 lb 7.25 oz and is 15 inches long. He has had no apnea episodes recently and seems to be doing much better recovering from minor drops in his oxygen saturation or heartbeat. No indication when they will try to move him off the CPAP to the cannula yet, but it seems likely soon. Gus has moved to concentrated feeds - he gets the full 26 ml in one hour now and then has two hours to process it. This is much more like what feeding will be like with a bottle or the breast and is preparing him for the next phase of babydom - eating through his mouth instead of a tube down his nose ad into his stomach. The coordination that controls the "suck, swallow, breathe" reflex doesn't develop until about 34 weeks. Gus still has a week or two to go before they try to feed him with a bottle...

Fi-ga-ro!
Gregg, Jill and Gus