The Collins Family: 2w5d

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since our last update! Kieran is doing well, just on the eating/sleeping/growing plan so there isn't much to report on a day-to-day basis. I'll start with his medical updates first, and then on to pictures and video from the past few days!

Kieran hit 3 pounds on Saturday (32w1d) and today he weighed 3.24 pounds! He is gaining around 20-30 grams a day and hasn't had any weight loss, so here's hoping we see some chub soon!
Today we started adding a little protein powder to his milk, as his protein levels were just slightly low.
As I've mentioned before, Kieran has had an enlarged kidney we've kept an eye on since discovering it at 20 weeks. His doctors plan on doing a VCUG scan - basically they will use a dye to see if his kidneys reflux back up into his bladder, something that would require surgery (I think? I don't entirely remember.) This will be done as an outpatient scan at Children's Hospital after he gets discharged, but for the meantime they started him on a half-dose of amoxicillin as a preventative measure.
He was taken off his caffeine last week and as a result, we have seen some more stop-breathing episodes. This isn't really a bad thing, necessarily - it's very normal for preemies to stop breathing for multiple reasons. We think the most common reason right now is reflux-related. Preemies lack muscular development, and one muscle that isn't very developed is the sphincter around the esophagus, so his food tends to come back up slightly, which mostly results in him "chewing" on it and then he stops breathing because he's focused on that instead. Most of the time, he fixes it himself and starts breathing again within seconds, but occasionally needs stimulation to remind him to breathe. The doctors are not really concerned with any of this, as like I said earlier, it's very normal for his age & he doesn't usually require a lot of stimulation to remind him to breathe. Still, it can be trying for Josh & I. For example, before the caffeine was stopped and he had very few episodes, we could spend an hour or two holding him calmly - he never really set off the alarm, which goes off when he de-sats to 85% oxygen intake or lower. But with these recent episodes our kangaroo care sessions sometimes get cut short when we have to put him back in the isolette to relax, and the nurses come back often every time his alarm beeps, so the time spent with him isn't super relaxing. But all things considered, this is within the realm of normal and Josh and I are just trying to remember that it's not even necessarily a setback, since he did stop the caffeine recently. He's basically acting his age and we just need to take it in stride.

In other news, Maia finally met her little brother for the first time this weekend! They lifted the H1N1 ban and siblings under 10 are now allowed in the NICU, so we all went to visit Kieran this past Saturday night.