Well, ok. That overnight transition in his ability to feed turned out not to be quite so easy. It has been hard work for Toby to nurse and has required a lot of extra time and attention this past week. He is doing well, though. Yesterday and the last couple nights were back to a schedule more closely aligned with what he was doing before and a welcome relief from the every two hour schedule he had been needing. One remaining concern is if he is getting the caloric intake he needs to grow at a good rate now that his milk can no longer be boosted or measured. When he was weighed on Thursday, his weight was only two ounces more than the previous week. He will be weighed again on Friday and we will be able to tell if he is back on track.

The good news which I have been so long in telling is that his lungs have improved dramatically. The pulmonologist tested him off of the oxygen for 5 or 10 minutes and his saturation level only went down slightly to 92%; it would not have been enough to sound the alarms by the parameters they used in the NICU. She said that enough new lung tissue has grown that he is a different baby than he was a month ago. Sometime in the next month, he will be tested here at home so that the weaning process can begin and Toby can come off the oxygen.

Right now, though, he is screaming his head off.