Zachary at home

Well, Zachary has been home for 2 weeks now and Jill and I have gotten about 12 hours of sleep in those two weeks. (kidding). As you can probably guess, Zachary has kept us awake for quite a many hours at night. It's his feedings which usually run an hour long. We have to give hime the opportunity to bottle feed for half an hour, then he gets tubed the rest of his food, should he not finish it. Using the NG tube to feed Zachary is a process too. We have to check for tube placement with a stethescope, then hang the food, and finally flush the tube. It is actually quicker if Zach takes his food by nipple. Which by the way he has done since yesterday afternoon. This makes Jill and I very happy, because he pulled his tube out of his nose yesterday (again) and we haven't had to put it back in, yet!!!! And then his Apnea monitor goes off in the middle of the night scaring both Jill and I out of our sleep. Half the time I think they are false alarms, or somebody is playing a sick joke on us. We think they have a remote and they trigger it when we are sleeping to keep us on our toes. Because 99% of the time, Zach is breathing fine. And it doesn't go off hardly at all during the day. Oh well, we've gotten used to getting up. Then there is the problem with Zach keeping his food down in his tummy. He has thrown up a few times, but it is not as often anymore. The nurse said no more than 3 in a 24 hour period, which he hasn't, and now it's rare. When he did express his food, it was because we were moving him around too much, so we've stopped that, and it seems to be working. YEAH!!!!!! Zach had several appointments last week with various doctors. The first of which was his pediatrician visit. The doctor said he looked fine. He's gaining weight good his lungs and heart sound good, and his hernias are gone. His second appointment was with the opthamoligist, and he said Zach's eyes are looking great, and he is not concerned anymore. This is great news for Jill and I, although he still could end up with glasses, but at least he will be able to see. Then we took him to the NICU to get a blood pressure reading and that was 98 which is kind of high, but not to be concerned about according to the pulmonoligist. Zach was scheduled to get blood pressure readings twice weekly, but his last two blood pressures were 84 and 80, so we don't have to worry about that anymore. Zach has a home nurse that comes to our house twice a week. She checks his blood pressure, weighs him, which by the way, he is 8 pounds 2 ounces now, and gaining every day. She also listens to his heart and lungs, keeps track of his feedings and various other things. Zach kept us up for a very long time last night and I'm contemplating contacting the doctor to see if I can change his caffeine intake times to the morning. I feel this may be the reason he is staying awake at nignt. We'll see. His nurse will be here in a couple of hours and then Jill and I can take a nap. So All in all we are happy with his progress, and very happy to have him home. He is my bundle of joy. It always amazes me that Jill and I have a little boy, and I am so proud to call him my son. I especially love his facial expressions. Zach is a little boy with many faces. And they are all adorable.