Mr. Popular

Today was a welcome continuation of yesterday's activities.  We arrived to find that Angie, last nights nurse had changed out all of Zachary's bedding and swaddled him in some new threads as well.  They all looked great and were much more masculine with the dominant blue coloring.  We thought Zach would feed around 11:30, but he decided to sleep until 1pm instead.  He has developed this routine for the past few days were he cluster feeds in the morning, then sleeps up to 4 hours, feeds in the early afternoon, then stays awake for 2-3 hours until his early evening feed, when he finally falls asleep again for up to 4 hours.  We're hoping to get him on a better routine, but if this holds up we'll just have to adjust it so his long sleep patterns coincide with night time hours.  No sense in having him awake until 3 or 4 in the morning, then sleeping all day!!

Overall things are steadily improving for Zachary.  Dr. Handler was by early this morning to look at his incision, and he is very pleased with its progress and healing, so that was very good news. Our "little" guy is now 6lbs. 15 oz, ever so close to that 7lb threshold, and gaining weight daily which is excellent.  Zachary was also able to maintain his PICC line with minimal back up for another day, so that is yet another small victory.  You can see in the photos above his PICC line starts on the inside of his left biceps and runs into the artery.  This leads to an inability to put Zach in any real clothes since they want to keep the line unobstructed, so he'll have to remain the "naked" baby for the next few days (diapers only!).  He loves his swaddles, and they keep him pretty warm, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Zachary had 5 more visitors today.  Jodee and Mark had a much more pleasant visit today, with no screaming, and anxious procedures to replace his PICC line.  Our good friend Bill stopped by for a while as well, which was very nice.  Then, just before we left for the day, Matt and Cindy stopped by to meet little Zachary and catch up a bit with Mommy and Daddy.  They headed back to New York, but Zach is excited for the opportunity to see them again in February when he has no tubes or antibiotics keeping him from being held.  

As his incision continues to heal, we continue to attempt to regulate his daily routine, but will most likely have to wait until he is home to truly get him settled into a favorable one for Mommy and Daddy.  Tomorrow we will try and be present for a couple more feedings and hopefully can get Mommy and Zachary on the same schedule for breast feeding/pumping.  Until then thank you all for your continued prayers, and support.  God Bless - Brian + Kimmie