Answers

Just a quick post to answer a question left in the comments....

Anonymous said...

You refer to how big Andrew is quite a lot.....how big is he?

Good question. To be honest, we don't know exactly, as he hasn't been weighed in a few weeks. The last time he was weighed, he came in at just over 12 pounds. That might not be huge for a kid his age, but the NICU is much more often the home to preemies that started off much smaller than Andrew. When you're born at 24 weeks, you're obviously going to be a very small percentage of Andrew's full 40-week size, which was around 9 pounds. He's also somewhat beefy and pretty strong for his age (and condition). When he wants to get upset, he has the muscular capacity to lift himself inches off the bed with the back of his head, kick lines out of his feet, pull tubes from his face and chest, or clamp down internally so that he can't breathe. Obviously he's not doing all of that at once, but the hi-fi vent is particularly sensitive to babies big enough to "fight it," and sedation prevents him from doing any of these potentially harmful things.

As an aside, I'd appreciate it when anonymous posters provide a name or some indication of who they are when leaving comments. I love answering questions and invite anyone to ask, but my curiosity runs wild when I don't know who particular comments are from. Thank you all for your wonderful comments to this point, and I hope they continue.