Not much has changed since my last email last Tuesday. Max now weighs 2.154 kg (4lb 12oz) he was born at 1.556 kg (3lb 7oz) and is beginning to look chubby cheeked and healthy. The doctors and nurses on the unit are very complimentary about him, one of the doctors said “he is very beautiful, and we see a lot of babies in here!” So I know I’m biased but other people seem to agree too!
He is very settled and happy and growing. His oxygen levels still drop periodically but these seem to be getting fewer and further apart and although he continues to have lots of secretions he has learnt to dribble a lot of them out (not very pretty but useful for him at the moment!) and he seems to need suctioning less often than before.
We have no further news on what the docs will do to investigate why he isn’t swallowing, but for the moment we are taking comfort in the fact that he is growing and getting stronger every day. Of course we would love to have him at home but that is not a possibility yet, and we doubt he will even be home for his due date. Because it is so unusual to have a tracheostomy in baby as small as Max, they are getting a custom made trachy tube from the States for him so we are also waiting for that to arrive. Hopefully he will be more comfortable when he gets the new tube in.
That is all our news really, I attach another picture for you all. The tube you can see is part of the variable tracheostomy he currently has and will be gone when the new trachy is fitted.