“Well, you like . . . each picture for . . . a different reason. But I think my favorite will always be the next one.”- John Wayne

October 21^st: There is nothing worse than a grumpy baby and that is what I had today. Duke didn’t want to wake up for his 9am feeding appointment with the speech therapist. He was fussy during all of his cares because we were waking him up. He hated his shots today for preventing RVP (preemies are prone to respiratory infections and this prevents them) and pushed my hand away when he got it (see below pictures). Finally for his 3pm feed he kept covering his face so we couldn’t count his sucks to see how he was doing. Grumpy Grumpy Grumpy.

[Holding my hand]

:( [He was over it 5 seconds later]

            The good news is Duke went down to 2 liters on the Vapotherm, which is excellent. He did well on 2 liters and didn’t destat once with the change. The doctor said he will move to 1 liter tomorrow if he can get this one down packed overnight.

            The annoying news Duke is not in need of intensive care anymore, but he can’t drink from a bottle yet. Therefore where does he go? It reminds me of what they say at closing time in a bar “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here”. Personally I want him to come home, sleep in his bassinet and hang out with me while I make dinner, but that can’t happen with him not eating from a bottle. They are probably going to move Duke to a Baby Rehab early next week where he will learn to drink (unlike Adult rehab where you learn not to drink). Duke will work with occupational and speech therapists to teach him to drink from a bottle which will allow him to come home. This was very tough for me to hear because I thought he would go right from Children’s to home, but for some babies drinking doesn’t come naturally Duke is just one of those kids.