Samuel is 35 weeks old! Our little guy is quite amazing. In the past week he has managed to regulate his own body temp and is learning to eat on his own. We've had great success nursing and his eating from a bottle. We are starting off slow and nursing or giving him a bottle a few times a day. The first day he had something else in mind when he downed 36mL in just 20 minutes...1/2 the time it takes him to eat via his feeding tube! The next day when nursing him we got to hear a tiny little "burp" after eating...it was pretty cute! The Physical Therapist said that he is very strong and has the whole suck-swallow-breathe thing down pat, it just wears him out most of the time.

His episodes of bradacardias and apenia are becoming fewer and further between, which is another good sign for his upcoming discharge from the NICU. He needs to have five days of no bradys/apenias and we aren't keeping score yet but soon...
A special meeting with his sister this week was the highlight for all of us. This video is of Catherine waiting to meet her little brother: