5 Weeks Old

5 Weeks - 2 lbs, 14 oz; 14 1/2 inches

Jacob is 5 weeks old today, and finished with his course of antibiotics for pneumonia.  His symptoms have improved and he is weaning to lower settings on the respirator, so we are almost over this illness and ordeal that has been so tough on Jacob and our family the last two weeks.  I was so happy to see the last IV come out.  His veins definitely need a break.

He is breathing more and more on his own and requiring less oxygen from the respirator - he is in the 40s-50s (vs 70s and even 100 earlier this week) on percent oxygen required, with fewer breaths per minute (25 vs 45 earlier this week) delivered by the machine than earlier this week.  Jacob is making progress and we hope he will be off the ventilator in a couple days.  This would be amazing, since earlier this week we were thinking steroids would be necessary to get him off the ventilator.

It has been 3 weeks since I have held Jacob.  Back a few weeks ago when he was stable, I was able to hold him on two separate occasions for a few minutes each.  Today Jacob got a new neighbor - a 33 weeker who was born yesterday.  Seeing the mom come in and be able to hold her baby for so long was too much to take.  I am longing for the days and weeks ahead when we will be able to hold Jacob and feed him and show him how much we love him.

Jacob has been putting on a lot of weight and is almost to 3 lbs.  His doctors are trying to control his weight gain to minimize fluids in the lungs and the stress that excess fluids could put on his body, but whatever they try (restricting feedings, diuretics) hasn't been working - he is determined to be a big guy and grows every day.  His lungs are doing better and the doctors are joking about it with me so it must not be a huge concern.