“And to all you folks out there, I want to thank you for the last fifty years of my career. And I hope I can keep at it another fifty years - or at least until I can get it right.”- John Wayne

October 22^nd: So long Vapotherm hello regular hospital oxygen. Duke is down to 2 liters and 21% oxygen as usual. He didn’t enjoy the switch of machines at first because it is a more dry natural air, but he got over it after about a half hour and was content.

            Duke had two bottle feedings again yesterday. Both feedings he took were 5 ml and like before he does better with afternoon feeds than morning. He is a little more awake and consistent with his suck, swallow, breathe patterns. I was nervous about losing ground with Duke on his drinking over the weekend so the speech therapist and doctors agreed to let me do two bottle feedings over the weekend, but I must have supervision from the nurse to watch his vitals. I am getting to be a pro at balancing Duke, 4 wires/ tubes and a bottle while getting Duke out of his crib. The speech therapist always looks nervous, but I have to learn.

            Today was also Duke’s hearing test, which is nerve wracking when you see the lady watching a screen and your baby not move. Apparently the babies don’t react, just their brains. But in retrospect I shouldn’t have expected something like him raising his hand or jumping with loud sounds. They connect electrodes behind your ears and on your forehead. They place little sensors in the ears like headphones and they play a tone about the sound of a whisper. The sensors measure the brainwaves to see if they hear the tones. Duke passed, phew!