Day 70: Not Much to Report

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I don't have a whole lot to report tonight.  Gabe had another eye test and the doctor said he "did better than I could have possibly expected for a 23 weeker."  He's still got a few more tests over the next few weeks to make sure that his eyes are progressing as they should, but as of now, all is well.

Several people have asked me what needs to happen before we can get out of here.  Basically, there are three things.  Gabriel needs to be able to breath on his own, take all of his food by mouth and maintain his own temperature.  He's now breathing on his own, so we have one step down!  As soon as he hits 1800 grams (about 4lbs) they'll put him in an open crib rather than an incubator and we'll see how he does maintaining his own temperature.  Then all we have left is eating.  We've started letting him play around with it a bit, but he's still pretty little and it takes awhile to develop the coordination to suck, breath and swallow at the same time.  It may take a few more weeks before he's ready to do all three of those at the same time.  But we are getting closer!

I don't want to take him home until he's ready.  However, I'm ready to be done with this whole NICU thing and to take my baby home.

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