Our Big Five Pound Little Man

Big news tonight!  Joshua is now 5 lbs!  He gained 3 oz since last night, up to 2280 grams.  Our little man is HUGE!  He's getting to be so fun.  He is so alert and smiley.  He looks more like a normal baby now, and not a preemie.  He doesn't seem so fragile anymore.  It's nice that I can pick him up and set him down by myself and hold him however and whenever I want and just treat him like a normal baby.  I did his bath yesterday by myself, without any help from the nurse, so I felt like such a big girl.  :)  The preemie outfit he wore today was almost too small, too. 

I talked to the doctor about him today, and he said Joshua may need to go home on a G tube (surgically inserted tube in the abdomen that goes directly to the stomach for feeding) if he isn't eating on his own by 42 weeks.  He's 38 weeks old now.  He said that's not a definite thing, but he wanted us to be prepared for that in case it needs to happen.  We're really hoping he'll kick it in and figure it out soon.  The hardest part is having no control.  We can't push him too much, so it's up to him to set the pace.  He has shown so much progress since last week, and he has four weeks to work with, so I think he'll be fine.

Here's an interesting tidbit:  Joshua is on a small dose of oxygen by nasal cannula, and he'll most likely have to be on oxygen when he goes home, especially since Monument is 1500 ft higher in elevation compared to CO Springs, where he is now.  120 mL equals the amount of oxygen at sea level, and he's only on 25-50 mL.  That means he wouldn't need any oxygen supplementation if we weren't so high in altitude.  I think that's pretty good.