Ryan is doing great! He is now 3 pounds! He is off of all the medications and I believe Shane said they have removed all the IV's so Shane and April can now hold him and bathe him. I'm not sure that I'm spelling this correctly but Ryan is now on what they call a "bolus" (like bowl-us) feeding. That means that instead of a constant drip through his feeding tube he now gets his feedings all at once-more like a regular feeding. He'll get 6 or 8 cc's at a time and then in a couple of hours he gets 6 or 8 more. That way his system gets used to the normal process of digestion. This is one of the many steps Ryan will need to make before he can go home.
Everyone wants to know when Ryan will be coming home...the answer is we really don't know. He has a few milestones that he needs to pass before he can go home. He'll need to be able to regulate his body temperature outside of the incubator, he'll need to be able to tolerate the bolus feedings and put on more weight, and he'll have to show that he has gone without an apnea (stop breathing) for a set amount of time. The time frame we have been given has been around the time of Ryan's original due date which was April 3rd.
One thing that Shane and April have been told is that Ryan will have a compromised immune system for a while after he comes home from the hospital. He will need to stay away from crowds to keep him safe from viruses and infections. He will also have to stay out of daycare for probably at least the first year. We all look forward to having everyone see him and hold him but it may be a while before he makes his debut.
April had 2 baby showers this past weekend. They were both a lot of fun and everyone was very generous! They received some very thoughtful gifts including hand made sweaters, hats and booties (with every stitch a prayer) and blankets and quilts--one even had a token that was blessed by the Pope sewn in. Along with all the necessary equipment for a tiny bundle of joy's comfort and even some equipment to make Mom and Dad's life a little easier.