Finn is 10 weeks old today.

One of the themes of an extended NICU stay for a micro preemie is the slow but (hopefully) steady progress toward doing, on their own, all of the “normal stuff” you take for granted with a full term baby — stuff like breathing, producing their own blood, eating, etc.

If we’re running down that list for Finn, we can now put a check mark next to breathing on his own (having graduated both from the ventilator and the CPAP machine), albeit with a bit of oxygen, and producing sufficient levels of red blood cells for himself (after six blood transfusions). And in the past week-and-a-half, Finn has started to take on one of his toughest tasks yet: eating on his own.

Last Thursday, September 22, Finn breastfed for the first time. He’s breastfed once per day since then, and it’s going well!  One of the doctors said to Mom in the hall, “I heard Finn is breastfeeding like a champ!” — so we’ll take that as a good sign.

Then, on Wednesday, September 28, Finn had his first bottle from Dad. Just like breastfeeding, he’s bottle-fed once per day since then. He hasn’t yet been able to get a full 39 mL feeding through breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, though he did take down a healthy 35 or so mL when Dad gave him his bottle on Thursday, September 29. Most importantly, though, he figured out the “suck-swallow-breathe” dilemma very quickly, and so now it’s just a matter of building his stamina so he can breastfeed and bottle-feed more and more (and rely on his feeding tube less and less).

Meanwhile, Finn is still chugging right along in his CPAP-free world, and remains on just a bit of extra oxygen. He completed his 22-day course of steroids (hydrocortisone) on Thursday, September 29, and now we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t see a significant rebound. Two factors make us hopeful that he’s going to stay the course: (1) he gets a small dose of prednisolone, itself a steroid, every other day to try to help him maintain; and (2) he really, truly is getting bigger and stronger every day. On Tuesday, September 26, Finn weighed in at 4 pounds, 8 ounces — triple his original birth weight. As of tonight, October 1, Finn tipped the scales at 5 pounds, 1 ounce.

Finn is now 35 weeks, 2 days gestational age, and when he hit the 35-week mark a couple of days ago, a few things changed. He now has to sleep in his crib without the use of “barriers” (little body pillows and other items that had previously helped to cocoon him); he’s no longer allowed to lay on his stomach; and he’s expected to keep higher oxygen saturation levels (so his vitals monitor has been set to ding accordingly). The reason for all of this? Finn won’t have barriers, lay on his stomach, or be on a vitals monitor when he comes home, so he needs to start getting adjusted.

We haven’t officially begun discharge planning yet, but the fact that we’re making those post-35-week changes, talking to the nurses about the vaccinations Finn will need before he leaves the NICU, and being asked to schedule the mandatory parental CPR class — these are all good signs. One of Finn’s primary nurses said the other day that a late October graduation is certainly a possibility, so while we’re trying to temper our expectations, we can finally safely say that we are closer to the end of Finn’s NICU journey than the beginning.

Finn’s milestones over the past week-and-a-half include:

• On Thursday, September 22, Finn breastfed for the first time.
• On Monday, September 26, Finn weighed in at 4 pounds, 8 ounces — triple his birth weight.
• On Wednesday, September 28, Finn took a bottle for the first time.
• On Saturday, October 1, Finn crossed the 5 pound mark, tipping the scales at 5 pounds, 1 ounce.