Even though Campbell slept through basically the entire thing, we think he enjoyed his first croquet tournament this weekend.  And, he was definitely dressed appropriately in his croquet whites.  He was a little more well-rested than Mom & Dad, who had been playing all day.

He also got to meet his 98 year-old great-grandfather, and posed for a nice picture of four generations on that side:

He also got to meet his Aunt Allison:

And cousins Patrick…

And Stewart:

And Aubrey too, but we didn’t get a pic of her today.

Today, since Campbell’s diet consists of milk and vitamins, we thought it would be perfect to introduce him to one of Memphis’ great traditions: BBQ.  Despite our best effort to tell him how good it was, though, he just felt like sleeping at the Memphis in May BBQ Fest.

Campbell had a big day today: he had his first visit to a doctor outside the NICU.  We went to the pediatrician today, and found out that he was 5 pounds 9 ounces (but, that was his first weigh in with a diaper) and 18 inches long.  All other signs were good, as well.  The doc did tell us that Campbell could start deciding when to eat instead of sticking to a strict schedule, though, which is both good (it means he’s healthy) and bad (if he decides to get hungry more than every four hours).

All in all, we think the little guy is getting used to being home, but he’s still a bigger fan of noise than quiet; I guess hearing lots of monitors beeping, alarms sounding, and others baby crying was his normal.

It still looks like Campbell will be coming home tomorrow.  He’s passed all of his tests and he’s still eating well.  So, tonight we are “rooming in” with Campbell at the hospital.  Essentially, we are just outside in the NICU in a room with the little guy and monitors still on him.  They want parents to do this to make sure they feel comfortable taking care of their kids for a night, but with the nurses and doctors right around the corner.  So, hopefully, this will be a smooth night and we’ll all three go home tomorrow!  (Although, the doctor told us that sometimes parents don’t feel totally comfortable after one night and want to stay a second).

Here’s pic of his new digs tonight–I’m calling it the “halfway house” between the NICU and home.

It isn’t bad, but it is not the quietest or most comfortable room in the world.  I’m convinced they do that on purpose to get you used to having a bad night’s sleep before the sleepless nights to come when nurses don’t take care of your crying baby :).  So far so good (see below), but we’re only about a couple of hours in.  🙂

Campbell is starting to digest like a champ.  So, that’s great.  He’s not eating as well, though.  They are bumping up his food really fast, and he’s not always wanting to eat it all.  He gets a little tired after the first 10 ccs or so, and won’t take the rest by bottle.  So, they put a feeding tube back in, unfortunately. Other than that, all signs are pretty good–he’s still in his “big boy” bed and is still wearing clothes, though not in this picture here.

You can see the rubber band contraption they’ve created to help hang his feeding tube since he’s in an open crib now.  I think you can do anything with rubber bands and duct tape.

And speaking of contraptions…  🙂

They are back to feeding him!  They are starting him with just a little (4 Cc’s), but it is great that they have started feeding him again.  The neonatologists don’t see anything wrong with the tests and x-rays.  So, they are going to see what happens if they give him milk.  There are a number of positives to that, but two of them in particular are that (1) he may be able to avoid surgery and (2) he’s lost his feeding tube.  Campbell is enjoying drinking from a bottle, and is also a little bigger than an Ipad Mini these days, as you can see from the pictures below.

The news today was not as good.  We are back to thinking that surgery is an option again.  Hopefully, it won’t happen, but we met with the surgeon today because she thinks there might be a stricture.  We are hopeful that she’s just being an aggressive surgeon (the neonatologist didn’t think there was the same distension or anything).  The little guy is still getting fat, which is good, and he is acting happy, which is also a good sign.

They are going to do some additional tests in the next couple days to figure out why he’s not digesting and why the contrast that they put in from the previous test seems to be moving too slowly.

He has gotten awfully good at holding his pacifier (not sure that’s really the point, but he’s good at holding it):

And, he actually does suck on it, which will be great once he eats (soon!):

Well, just like you can get unexpected bad news, you can get unexpected good news.  On our drive out to the hospital today, the doctor called to tell us that he thinks Campbell doesn’t have NEC.  They are taking him off antibiotics today (well in advance of when we thought they would) and are hopefully feeding him again tomorrow or the next day.  Basically, all the x-rays and tests came back normal.  So, that is a huge relief.

They also were able to get a picc line in today (after not having been able to last night).  The picc line isn’t great news because it means that they’ll be giving him stuff through an IV until he gets back to full feedings, but it is a good thing on the other hand because the little guy doesn’t have to get stuck so much.  And, he didn’t have to keep the stick in his head (I was calling him a “pinhead” but not sure that was the right thing to do…).

All in all, it was a good day, topped off by getting to kangaroo with him today, even if he didn’t give me as a big of a smile as he gave Meredith yesterday.

And, I think we may have a trendsetter on our hands, based on how he likes to wear his hat…

Like everybody else, Campbell doesn’t feel great when he eats too much.  He is up to 25 cc’s per feeding, but he isn’t always digesting it all (which I wouldn’t have guessed from the mess he made in his diaper while I was holding him today). He had a little left over in his stomach, but they are encouraged and think he’ll continue to eat well.  Love his cute smile below:

And, these cute pics of him “kangarooing” with dad today:

Mom kangarooed with Campbell today, and he is eating a lot (23 cc’s of milk).  They’re also putting his milk on a pump so he gets it over 45 minutes to make it easier to digest since the volume is bigger.  He also has become kind of a chubby little dude at 2 pounds, 11 ounces (he was above that yesterday, but mostly because of the extra blood).  His nurse took this great picture of him while working on him.

The blood worked!  He’s feeling much better, has more color, and is eating well (21 cc’s).  In fact, he did well enough overnight that the picc line came out and we were able to kangaroo with him again today.  Having the pic line out means he is getting all his nutrition from milk!  So he is totally off IV nutrition now!  Here’s what the little guy looks like in comparison to an iPad mini–we are hopeful he’ll be the size of a regular iPad soon!

And here’s a cute “kangaroo” picture with dad today:

Campbell was being a bit “wimpy” today.  He had a few small drops in vital signs here and there and was pale (more pale than his dad, which is pretty damn pale).  So, he had to get blood.  A blood transfusion for a two and 1/2 pounder is fascinating because he only got 18cc’s of blood (picture of the blood going in attached).  (Thankfully, he doesn’t seem too bothered by blood).

Still, we hope it’ll make him feel better and we’re looking forward to the picc line coming out soon!

He’s eating more, also, and getting 18cc’s of food, but won’t be able to eat for 6 hours after the blood transfusion.

And, this is a cuter picture of him before they started the transfusion:

Until Campbell gets a few weeks older, he is allowed to sleep on his stomach, which is definitely his favorite!  (At least he gets something from mom! :))  (See pic below). But, he also apparently likes to move around when he isn’t tucked in completely.  In fact, when they checked on him this morning, he had moved himself all the way to the side of the bed….

In other news, Campbell is eating better and better.  We figure he is at least two to three weeks away from being ready to play O-line, but is gaining weight (up to 2 pounds, 8 ounces today!).  He still isn’t remembering to breathe perfectly, but he was doing well enough to have Meredith hold him for awhile.  But, that got cut short when he had a few little breathing scares.  The doctor tells us it isn’t something to worry about at the moment.

Well, Dad got to kangaroo today!  There were a few little scares when Campbell got too relaxed and his breathing rate went down, but nothing of major concern and Mason got to hold him for a nice long time.  Mason has marginally more chest hair than Campbell.

Campbell is still eating well, but doesn’t always remember to breathe as well as we want.  The team at the NICU is keeping a close eye on it, and making sure he gets all the oxygen he needs, but it means we didn’t want to disturb him much today. So, no kangarooing, but still fun to see the little guy, and we had a nice visit where he was really awake.  Here’s hoping he doesn’t have to go back on any sort of machines.

He also really likes to sleep on his tummy and suck on his pacifier.  🙂

Well, this was awesome.  Meredith got to “kangaroo” with Campbell for the first time.  The docs and nurses really like for parents to hold the babies with skin-to-skin contact (called “kangarooing”) when the babies are strong enough to do it.  So, Meredith did that for the first time today with Campbell.  Campbell did great, and enjoyed snuggling up with mom!

Well, Campbell continues to do well.  He is eating more: 7 cc’s every 3 hours (about 2 ounces a day).  We got a short visit with him this afternoon after they changed his feeding schedule.  He’s still breathing without assistance, and we get to see more of his face.  And, Mom & Dad got to hold him again!

So, it was another good day for Campbell.  He lost another wire, which is always a great thing.  He also lost the sticker off of his face that held on the high-flow breathing machine.  Losing the stickers is a great sign because it means they are optimistic that he won’t have to go back to the machine.  He is also eating better and getting 8cc’s of milk every 4 hours (8 cc’s is about a 1/4 ounce).  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a big improvement from where he was! On the “getting to feel like we have a kid” front, this was the first day that Mason got to hold Campbell.  (Mom got to hold him again too!).

Well, Campbell started March off well.  We got good news about his heart and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will start eating better.  They’ve changed feeding schedules to every three hours to try to get his stomach working correctly.  I’m guessing that nobody has explained to him how much mom and dad like food.

On the “new” front, he learned how to use a pacifier today (pic below), which is good because it means that he’s figured out how to breathe while using the pacifier at the same time.

Well, today was another somewhat up and down day.  Campbell continues to breathe well, but has stopped digesting. Because of that, he’s lost a little weight.  We had gotten spoiled with a few really positive days in a row, and so even a little setback wasn’t much fun.  That said, it is just a small and reportedly common setback and we are still really encouraged by all the good news.

On the far more “up” part of the day, Meredith got to hold Campbell as they changed his bed.  This is the very first time that she had gotten to hold him, which she loved. He also took to it, it seems, since he cried as soon as we put him down (one of the very few times we’ve actually heard him cry).  Pics of the proud (and really happy to hold him) Mom below.