Two steps forward . . .

One big step forward: Tobias has been an eager beaver with his pacifier. He has become quite demanding and insistent that he have it. Simply put, at feeding times the boy acts like a hungry baby . (And he thinks any time he is awake is feeding time.) I spoke with the doctor yesterday about when he would be able to bottle feed and was told it would probably be another week or two, but that the timing would be left up to the nurses' judgement. I mentioned that to his nurse yesterday and five minutes later, Toby had a bottle in his mouth. So much for the small talk! Obviously, Toby has been communicating well with his nurses and they have been listening. He successfully fed 10 ml (2 tsps) yesterday; it was a challenge for him and definitely wore him out, but he did it! And today he had an entire feeding (30 ml) from the bottle. Again, it was quite a challenge for him but he rose to it and completed it like a champ. Tomorrow, maybe two feedings? As long as he continues to be successful, the number of feedings by bottle per day will be increased until he is completely done with the gavage feedings. (It can't be too soon for Tobias; he has become quite skilled at pulling his tube out. Disappointingly for him, his nurses are even more skilled at putting it back in.)

Another step forward:
Toby has now doubled his birth weight. Twice 1 lb 13 is 3 lb 10, his official weight yesterday.
The small step backward:
He weighed in at 3 lb 14 today which means he went up 6 ounces in two days. This is a bit too much to be good news and means that he has been retaining fluids again. So it is back on the diuretics. It also meant a pause in the weaning from high flow. The volume of air he is on had been reduced Monday and the hope was that he would be able to go down again today. It was not to be and that is probably because of the extra fluids affecting his lung function negatively. If so, we should see some improvement again as that problem is reduced.