Fussy Man

0.03 ounces. That's all standing between our guy and 3.5 pounds! He almost made it this weekend, but fell just short. If this were any number of daddy's high school or college classes, the teacher may be willing to round that up to the next grade level. I'm thinking that gets rounded up a grade, and Mr. Colin gets an "A" for effort. What do you think? :-)
Mondays are lab testing days to check for bilirubin and hematocrit, among other blood profiles. His bilirubin is a little higher (more jaundice), but his hematocrit is up! This likely means Colin is now producing red blood cells, hopefully avoiding any more blood transfusions secondary to anemia of prematurity. Were still waiting the results of his reticulocyte number, which will be more telling of whether or not he's truly producing red blood cells on his own.
For the first time starting yesterday, Colin has been getting fussy even in between eating. A sign that he's growing and changing, or that something is bothering him? He normally is a really sweet, calm baby. Yesterday he was up between meals, cranky, fussy and wearing himself out. He took his bottles, but just the minimum they require him to. He kept pooping out. As new parents, we're learning. Maybe this is just normal behavior for babies? I know there are days when any of us are restless, cranky and sleep-deprived. Why would babies be any different, right?
Today is a big day for us as well. Ania goes in to start the process of figuring out what went wrong during her pregnancy with Colin. They will run some labs and various tests, looking for things such as anticardiolipin and antiphospholipids which can lead to placental abnormalities and premature babies. We can only hope there is an obvious answer, one that can be solved or managed for future pregnancies. At this point, we can't stand to think about going through all of this again, and Colin needs a little sister or brother to play with :-) The next time around, we'll take a relatively uncomplicated, traditional, full-term pregnancy. Is that too much to ask for? ;-)