Well, good news here. Zac had a good night and has had a good day. His bilirubin count is down to 6.8, which is at a level to where they are willing to pull off the lights. So, no foam purple sunglasses today, and he likes that. Additionally, he had fewer episodes of apnea last night and today and so they've changed his oxygen level and he's doing well with that, too. He's seems very content and today we've been able to hold him again. That is something we are very grateful for. In fact, today was my first chance to get to hold him! I enjoyed talking to him and found that if I spoke in a certain tone or used a specific voice inflection, he would raise his eyebrows as he was listening to me and even looking at me. :)
At this age, he can really only see clearly about 8-10 inches in front of his face, so we try to be close to him as possible when he's in his little bed or when we're holding him. Katy is holding him right now, doing the kangaroo care again, where she holds him up close, with skin to skin contact. He becomes very content when she does this, and his sleep is supposedly even deeper when this is happening.
One thing we've read is that for premature babies, deep sleep is absolutely vital to their growth and health. They aren't awake much at this point anyway, sleeping about 22 hours or more every day, so it's important for us to let him sleep and not bug him just because we want to be near him. :)
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