Saturday afternoon

Happy 1 Week Birthday, Finley John!
As you can see, his head is untethered again. Yeehaw! His only "supply lines" at this point are the oxygen and the feeding tube in his nose. Everything else is a monitor.
He had a few more feeds from Mommy through the night, but he is still being supplemented through his tube as they can't be sure how much he is getting from the breast. And he missed his 2:00 p.m. slot at the breast completely because he was so zonked - likely a combo of a night of very little sleep and his morning dose of drugs. They are going to transition his drug to give it to him at night instead of in the morning so that hopefully he will be more on our clock.
We have reached a stage that is incredibly demanding and tiring for Robyn, and it has nothing to do with Finley's seizure trouble. Robyn has to both breastfeed Finley AND pump every 3 hours or so. So that is leaving her stretches of 2 hours at the very most to sleep, eat, and do anything else. So far she is handling it well. But this will explain why you don't hear back from her or why she may not be able to talk when you call for the next few days. But I believe I can hear a few mothers out there saying, "I hear ya, sistah!".
Several of you have asked what has been going on in our real lives since we have been in the NICU. For those who don't know, I am in my first year in a PhD program at UNC. I obviously missed all of the classes last week (the final week of classes for the term). I have three final exams scheduled in the next week. Thankfully, all three professors have been very compassionate and generous and are going to allow me to defer the exams until the dust settles on our situation a little bit. That is a huge relief for us and we are incredibly thankful they have been so understanding. One of Finley's roommates (who was born at 24 weeks and has been in NICU for four months) has a Daddy in the Army who has to go back to Iraq on May 7 - just 4 days after his daughter finally gets to go home if everything proceeds according to plan.
We continue to be encouraged by what he is showing us. It is so great to have him free of the head wires again. Apart from the seizures, the biggest concern at this point is with his continuing need for oxygen. He does not seem to be making much progress on that front even though he seems to be progressing in other ways. The doctors are going to do another test tomorrow or Monday to see if there might be an independent reason that he is not taking in enough oxygen on his own.
Thank you for your continuing love, support, and prayers.
Mommy, Daddy, and the 1-week-old