day 7

Today was an absolutely AMAZING day! I got a phone call this morning from Kieran's doctor saying that he was on room air - no oxygen - on the CPAP mask and they wanted to get him on the nasal cannula (you know, those clear tubes that have two nasal prongs?) sometime that day. When I went in this morning he was already on the nasal cannula! And he was so comfy on his tummy that he required no oxygen all morning, just room air. What a big stride for the same little guy who was just on a ventilator a few days ago - we're so proud of him!

In addition to that great news, he's also tolerating my milk beautifully. They have to monitor him very closely, as his digestive system is so immature, but the milk I make is perfect preemie milk for his needs so I didn't doubt he'd like it :) He was bumped up to 3 cc's every 2 hours.

I have to say, though, that the best part of my visit with him today was my hour-long kangaroo care session with him. I was in mama heaven! We started the k-care at 12pm, just as he was starting his noon feeding. Even though he was getting the feeding through a tube, he started moving his mouth, so I stuck my pinky in his mouth to give him something to suck on. Once I did that, he started opening his eyes! And we chatted for the longest time, him opening his eyes often - I was melting! I have to say, this was the best day for me so far because I could just feel the love oozing out of me for Kieran - I could "feel" the bonding happening right then and there. If the nurses had peeked in on us, they would have laughed, because I was giggling and crying happy tears the whole time- it was so amazing. Definitely some oxytocin (nature's love hormone) at work there!

I took some one-handed pictures of our kangaroo care session.


Giving him a kiss.

Right now Josh is with him for a late-night visit and he planned to do kangaroo care during his feeding as well. I am still on cloud 9 from our visit today and I can't wait to see him again in the morning!