Luke is 13.4lbs now and is doing extremely well. We recently visited the lung specialist and he gave us clearance to end the apnea monitor (woo-hoo!) which is a great milestone. We also recently took Luke to see an ENT (Ear/Nose/Throat) specialist to take a look at his vocal cords and they said that they don't see any permanent damage, but they did see some inflammation (which explains his still pretty quiet cry and raspy voice). They said it could be due to the breathing tube being in for so long, or it could be because of his reflux. Luckily, the tube is obviously long gone and the reflux should hopefully go away before long as well. He's still on one medicine for his reflux plus they added a new one to reduce the acidity in his stomach to reduce the irritation in his esophagus caused by the reflux, both of which should help.
Other than that, he's acting and looking like a normal, healthy baby boy and is growing quickly...especially his appetite. In the last few weeks, he has started eating rice cereal and fruit (just pears so far, see photos below) and still loves a good bottle of formula every few hours. He's definitely starting to find his voice and recently learned how to make the "raspberry/motorboat" sound with his mouth, which he'll do for 10 minutes at a time when he gets going with it.
He's also getting better and better with his tummy time and sitting up and will be getting a little extra help from a physical therapist that will be coming to see him as part of a state program we're able to take part in because of his extreme prematurity.
Here are some recent photos. Enjoy and visit again soon as we'll post more often! Thanks again for all of your love and support since the very beginning.
