Week 1 Update - Thursday, June 5, 2008

Justin’s first week of life went pretty well. All lab results are moving into the normal range, his red platelet levels are good, and his white platelet levels have increased significantly so he is now able to fight off infection on his own. Within the next day or so he will be taken off of the photo therapy light treatment which was used to treat jaundice. A head ultrasound is scheduled for Monday to rule out any bleeding in the brain. He is on day 3 of a 7 day antibiotic treatment and is responding well. He does not currently have an infection but the doctors wanted to err on the side of caution and treat him proactively. His chest x-ray, which is done on a daily basis to check for proper tube placement, as well as to check the development of his lungs, was good. Justin did loose weight (2 oz.) after birth, but all babies lose weight in the first ten days or so of life. His current weight is now exactly 1 lb, but at this early stage his weight will fluctuate because preterm babies lose more water through the skin or respiratory tract than babies born at full term. The highlight of the week was when he opened his eyes. He didn’t open them completely, so I still can’t quite tell what color his eyes are, but nonetheless it melted my heart.