*there's an 81 day old baby

And this 81 day old baby is expected to stop having spells and eat from a bottle. This week has had several ups and downs with both of those. For one whole day he refused to eat from a bottle. No one ever figured out why. But now he's back to taking at least half of what he gets per day by bottle. Unfortunately the frequency of spells has increased again. Not so much that he needs oxygen, but too many for a baby that is ready to go to the intermediate/step down unit. The other event of the week was that Will's weight gain would go up a few ounces and stagnate for a couple of days, go up a few more ounces and stay there a few more days. Finally he is up to 5 lbs, 14 oz! This is still an improvement from the days where he would gain an ounce and then lose two.

Chris and I are trying to focus on helping him bottle feed this week. He seems to eat more for us and we also are learning how to spot a spell coming. It's not difficult now that we are getting used to them. He turns a "dusky" color and goes limp. I don't care for the word dusky but it is truly the best way to describe his face at that time. So we stimulate him by changing the position in which he is sitting or lying and patting him on the back. 

Other than that, Will does act like an older baby now. He has a lot more awake time. He lies quietly entertaining himself. He cries when he's hungry. He doesn't, however, burp. He used to be a great burper but today I couldn't get him to burp a single time. Nurses were unsuccessful either. They can even take the contents of his stomach out through his tube to see if there is air in his tummy and that only worked once. Sometimes he is such a mystery.

My goal this weekend is to take more videos and get more pictures of him doing cute things with his eyes open.

 He loves to hold hands.

  Almost caught a picture of a smile.