And then there was one...

Harris's neighbors are being discharged in the masses - so much so that today there were only 4 babies there that will still be there tomorrow (the SCN holds up to 15 or so babies, and had 12 when Harris got promoted) - one of course being Harris. Babies that were born after the little man have packed there bags and left in their car seats. And while with each discharge I am pleased for that family, I am unfortunately reminded that while we are absolutely moving in forward motion we are moving in slow motion and the end is still fuzzy. Today I had a shocking reminder -- gestational age. It is funny how these things sneak up on you in the NICU. I was holding Harris watching two other babies (well their mom's and dad's) getting discharge instructions when one of the nurses and a resident wondered over to me. The nurse must have known that I was having a torn moment and I was holding on my son tight attempting to focus on all the wonderful progress and she was talking up the strides of the day. Harris is now up to 50 mL of food (though he is still only taking three bottle feedings - often not the whole feeding), he is getting bigger and stronger, etc etc. When the resident (who we shall call beefcake because of his masculine, gold's gym, phisique - and more importantly because he has been on the NICU rotation for about 4 weeks and has never introduced himself to me) said "you have to remember his gestational age, he was only 30 weeks" REALLY-- REALLY genius you think it is useful to tell the mother who is already guilty as can be that she was unable to carry to full term his gestational age. As if that is not very clear to me -- I know many of the nurses and even some doctors have been tricked by Harris size often thinking he was older then he is - or was born later then he was - BUT not for one minute have I forgotten! That said Harris is making some great strides. He is doing really well with feedings for Adam, the nurses and me - now the speech pathologists he seems to be poky for and has yet to finish a bottle for them despite the fact that they are the feeding specialists. Today, I was sitting holding harris when I realised that he was not desating at all! His oxygen stayed HIGH really high (with the exception of when a lead came off) for over 3 hours. One week ago I thought I would never see the day when our little man's monitor did not report a list of desats. But today we were very close and tomorrow I am sure we will be even closer.