Man boobs :)

Puffy eye! Post-eye exam :(

Daddy is my hero!

I can hold my own pacifier, I'm a rockstar!

Man boobs!!!!!!! Look at how chubby he is getting, we're so proud!

Wow, sorry for the delay in updates! Kale had himself a pretty nice weekend. Where to begin...

Let's start with the eyes. He had another eye exam on Saturday with the retinal surgeon. He agreed with the diagnosis from the other eye doctor, and said he didn't see a change from her assessment. This is good. We don't want to see a change (unless of course it is normal growth), because that would mean his eyes would be changing stages of ROP. They will re-examine his eyes either Monday or Thursday. They are doing a few things to try and help his eyes. They have turned his oxygen percent up to 100% now. When he was younger they wanted to keep his oxygen far away from the 100% level because it can be very bad for their eyes, but now he's to the age that it's safe. They have also ordered his room lights to be on (normally they are pretty dim) from 6am-midnight. Both of these things will hopefully constrict his blood vessels in his eyes, which will slow the abnormal growth. If you want to read more about ROP here is a link www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop that explains it. We're hoping and praying that his eyes will improve and the abnormal growth will slow until his retina develop.

Kale has been kind of hit and miss as far as if he is interested and up to eating from the bottle. Sometimes he is wide awake and ready for it, and others he is not very interested. So, before he can come home he has to be able to eat every feed from his bottle. So, a little ways to go on that, but the Drs. seem to think that he is doing pretty well with it. He has certainly gained some weight this week - he is up to 5 lbs. 13.8 oz!!! His length is up to 18 inches, so he has grown 5 inches in length. He is about 27 days away from his due date, so he is really close to being considered 'full term' as far as his growth.

The Drs. and nurses still seem to think that he is just a few weeks from coming home. They have begun to give us our discharge instructions. There are videos we have to watch, information we have to understand and tests that Kale has to pass. We gave him a bath tonight without any help from his nurses, so that was one of the steps!

Tomorrow Kale will have another (and hopefully final) head ultrasound to check for brain bleeds. We are definitely hoping that his brain bleed is still resolved. In the next week or so I believe he is also supposed to have a hearing exam.

Tonight we met with our new NICU neighbors. They have a 24 weeker as well. She went into labor while riding RAGBRAI, and luckily she was able to get 2 steroid shots before she delivered. How crazy of a difference that must have made. Their baby is 4 days old and is already OFF the vent and on C-Pap! Their baby is doing very well, but the hard thing is is that they are actually from Colorado, and the dad just got an emergency leave from Iraq but has to go back next week. So, please include them in your prayers, what a tough situation to go through out of state and knowing that the dad is headed back to Iraq where he is a combat medic. We are getting some of Kale's preemie clothes that he has grown out of together tonight so we can bring them in for them tomorrow. Pay it forward, ya know?

Well, that's about it for tonight...except Kale wanted to say a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA JUNE!! This week should be an exciting one in the Albrecht family because Derc's brother Cory is getting married on Saturday!! Lot's of exciting stuff happening, hopefully we can soon add 'Kale coming home' to that list!

Thanks for keeping Kale in your prayers!!