Day 53

Nate had a big day today. He started off the day getting an increase in his feeds. They are increasing it 3 ml every 12 hours. He'll be back up to 12 ml in no time :) they also stopped his antibiotics today. The blood and urine cultures came back clear and his last x-ray looked great. Apparently that whole mess was just caused by some extra gas and not anything too major. He also got a new feeding tube today. Until now, he's had a tube going through his mouth down to his belly. He has become very good at using his tongue to work it out enough to get his fingers around it and pull it out. His nurses have to replace it multiple times per day and he hates it. He gags and cries the whole time. Since he is no longer on his breathing mask, his nurse today decided he could have a tube that goes from his nose to his belly instead. He didn't like it going down any better but it will be much harder for his to get it out and much easier to suck on his binki. So far, he loves it! This afternoon, Nate got his first eye exam. With preemies like Nate there is a 90% chance of having eye problems. They can range anywhere between mild nearsidedness to complete blindness. They start eye exams at 32 weeks and repeat them every week or 2, depending on what they find.  Blindness is usually caused by a detached retina which is something, that if picked up early, can be partially resolved with surgery. Since Nate was born so early, he has a higher risk of more severe problems. Fortunately, this first exam didn't show any problems. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he won't develop them later on. He will have another exam next week.