Aiden is developing quite the personality.  His english nurse called him “mischievous” today and thinks we’ll have our hands full when we bring him home.  He fights when they change his CPAP mask to prongs (oxygen tubes that fit tightly into his nose).  He pushes their hands away, moves his head back and forth and cries.   He also picks up his head and tries to smash his mask into his bed.  Preemies are suprisingly strong and agile, I have a hard time holding his hands down.  When Aiden’s upset, he will let you know.  (I’m hearing a recurring theme from nurses here – feisty, mischievous, strong, fighter…)

We have three primary nurses now: Nathalie, Erin and Patsy.  They all take extra care of our son.  They help with consistency in care (Aiden desats, he just does that and no need to panic) decorate his charts, and talk with us about anything – what to expect next, what restaurants to check out, how to find a bike and how annoyed they are that no Canadian hockey teams made the playoffs.  We just love them.

The doctors gave him another blood transfusion yesterday – that makes three!  They also decided to change his CPAP back to NIV, which provides more oxygen support.  They keep reminding us it’s common to go back and forth in the NICU.

He is gaining weight quickly, he’s already over 1,200 grams.  If you compare photos from when he was born you can see the changes.  His cheeks are getting chubbier (Eric’s happy about that), and he now has the next size up diaper.  Of course it doesn’t fit, but at least he’s grown out of the smallest size.  Progress!

One of our favorite pictures.

No mask or CPAP! They give him a small break and we can see his entire face.

I love holding him and hearing the little noises his mouth makes.

A new preemie came in the other night while Eric was holding Aiden.  She was only 560 grams.  All the feelings we had during that time – fear of his survival, potential disabilities, what his future would be – came rushing back.  I had tears in my eyes for what these parents were going through.  When we came the next morning the baby was gone. Life is precious.