One step forward... two steps back

A little bit of a disappointing day.  I mentioned last post that they bumped The MVP's feedings by 50% to 15cc, and had a standing order to increase to 18 if he handled it well.  Unfortunately, the amount he was digesting actually went down.  Thinking that he's just been overtaxed, they've taken him down to 5cc, which means he's gettin about 85% of his nutrition through the IV.  Our favorite nurse keeps reminding us that anything his digestive system does right now is 100% more than he should be doing, since he should really still be getting his nutrition through the umbilical cord.

They also told us they want to run a PICC line, which is more invasive than an IV, but should only have to be put in once vs. his IV which keeps getting knocked loose.  The doctors were pretty confident it was the right thing to do to decrease the chance of infection from multiple IV pokings, but it was still a tough decision because it sounds like a fairly uncomfortable procedure for him and they won't allow us to be there when it's being done.  Also, the fact that they are running a PICC line means they definitely expect him to be there longer than another week.

Family portrait #2

In other news, they ran him under the bilirubin lights all night last night.  His bili levels have dropped a bit, but they continued to run the lights today. In the middle of the night he ripped his Kanye glasses off, which is really not an easy task since it's taped and velcroed on.  Add this to the several times he's yanked out his feeding tube or knocked off his IV, and he's giving the nurses a heap of trouble with his unnatural MVP strength.

Here's a picture from yesterday -- you can kind of see where he's looking jaundiced.

...and Dad needs a manicure.

And this one is from today:

Resting up for another step forward.