RJ update for the 1st of July

from Holly:

R.J. had a great day yesterday. His Nana Burns got to hold him for the first time! He was so happy! So, one of his girlfriends aka. nurse has completely spoiled him to the uttermost. She had him while he was on the critical side and now on the growers side as well. She said he was looking at the lights on instead of sleeping, so she found a musical aquarium that lights up the fish and sings a lullaby to him. He loves the light and just lays quietly watching the light. I told her she is not helping us at all! Haha. I got to give him his bottle at 3pm. He took a bottle at 6pm and feeding tube at 9. He took a bottle at 12 and 3am then a tube at 6am. He has gone to the schedule of bottle, bottle, tube, bottle, bottle, tube. He gets 6 bottles a day now and is doing great with that. In just a day or two he will move up to all bottles a day. He weighed in last night at 4 pounds and 8 ounces. He continues to get stronger daily. He passed his hearing test yesterday. Praise God because Lord knows I can't hear. He passed his eye exam on Wednesday. With the possible hernia, we will have a follow up appointment in Shreveport on the 27th and we will have a regular pediatrician's appointment with our regular doctor in Ruston on the 11th. So, we know we will be home before that!!!!!!!!!!!! We have taken the classes we need to take for discharge. We were asked to bring in the car seat for that test. They will place him in his car seat with his monitors on for the amount of time it takes to get home. For us, he will have to stay in the car seat for one hour and 10 minutes. I feel sorry for the babies from East Texas or south LA that are in there car seats for over 2 hours or so, but they are just fine. They test to make sure all their vital stay consistent. We have not been told a discharge day. They usually just tell you the day before. The night before he leaves we will have to stay in a bonding room with him to make sure all his vitals stay up as normal through the night while he is with us. We know we are getting very close now. Continue to pray for his progress. He's been a fighter the whole time. Love to all!