Finn is 41 days old today — just a day shy of 6 weeks.

He completed his steroid course the morning of Tuesday, August 30, and we immediately began waiting anxiously for regression. And we waited… and we waited… and at the risk of jinxing anything, we’re now more than 72 hours removed from his last tapered dose of dexamethasone, and Finn is still at a CPAP pressure of 6, with oxygen requirements generally between 23% and 29%.

So it’s looking like the short steroid course was just the boost he needed to get over the hump. What’s more, the short-term negative side effects seem to be abating as well, as Finn’s heart rate has slowly declined into a more normal range over the past day or two, helped in part by stopping his caffeine dose. His spells haven’t really increased in frequency despite the lack of caffeine, and while his heart rate does still jump into the tachycardic (high) range at times, it seems to be gradually moving in the right direction.

Also moving in the right direction: the readings on Finn’s scale. As of last night, he was up to 1240 grams (just shy of 2 pounds, 13 ounces). He is getting 24 mL of breast milk every 3 hours, and is taking his feedings like a champ.

Yesterday morning, Thursday, September 1, Finn had his first eye exam. They didn’t ask him to identify the big “E” — he can’t really see much aside from dark and light contrast at this point, and even his older brother Dermot isn’t precisely sure which letter E is, after all — but they did check for signs of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP is a condition characterized by abnormal blood vessel development in a baby’s retinas, and is something that nearly all micro preemies wind up with. Finn’s left eye is currently “immature,” which means he has no real retinal development yet, while his right has Stage 1 ROP. It’s something that, as one of Finn’s nurses put it, will likely get worse before it gets better, but ROP is par for the course for babies like Finn, and it will be monitored every couple of weeks to make sure no intervention is needed. The hope is that it will fully subside as he moves closer to term (40 weeks gestational age, or November 3).

The eye exam aside, Finn has mostly been given a holiday recently from tests, bloodwork and the like. He’s scheduled to have blood drawn a few days from now, with the NICU team being particularly interested in his hematocrit level and whether he’s yet up to the task of producing all of the red blood cells he needs on his own. Finn hasn’t had a blood transfusion in almost three weeks, and while his doctors and nurses are happy to give him another one if he proves he needs it, the sooner his body can become self-sustaining when it comes to blood production, the better.

Finn’s recent milestones include:

• On Wednesday, August 31, Finn weighed in at 2 pounds, 9 ounces — up over a full pound from his birth weight.