This week Thomas began "cycling" between the CPAP and nasal cannula http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_cannula. Thomas is currently on CPAP for 3 hours and then one hour on the cannula - meaning he's on cannula for 6 hours a day - and he's been tolerating it rather well. Breathing with the cannula is the next step towards breathing room air - so we're very excited for Thomas. The cannula is also a lot more comfortable on Thomas (in comparison to the CPAP, the nose prongs are more narrow and there are no tubes on the sides of his head). It also means that Thomas is able to be held a lot more easily - TJC mom and dad are holding him just about every time he's on the cannula throughout the day - and we couldn't be more happy about it!
Thomas's temperature probe (a probe attached to his belly which signalled to his isolette (incubator) when he was too hot or to cold), was also removed this week - which means that Thomas's isolette is no longer automatically adjusting to his body temperature. The temperature in Thomas's isolette is now manually adjusted (if needed) when his temperature is taken by thermometer every three hours. This might not seem like a big thing - but in the NICU this means that Thomas now gets to wear clothing!!!! The removal of the temperature probe also indicates that Thomas is beginning to be able to regulate his own body temperature - which he will need to be able to do to come out of his isolette and into an open-air crib.
Thomas also "made" his first Mother's Day card for TJC mom. One of Thomas's favorite nurses made a card -with Thomas's hand and foot prints on it - so we can always remember our first Mother's Day together.
We have a lot of new pictures to share - but our blog is misbehaving. We'll have them out to you as soon as we can.
...take care
-TJC mom and dad
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