-3 Weeks

Day 91

Weight: 3 lbs 15 and a half oz! Almost 4 lbs!

Alright! We did gain some weight yesterday. We aren't sure how much of that is due to the decrease in Lasix and how much of it is real. Guess we will wait and see....

Once AGAIN they have scrunched his feeds. 1 hr on and 2 hrs off. He is still having some residuals (I have a reader who knows that word well...) which means that there is still milk left in his stomach after each of his feeds. Residuals show that his body isn't digesting the milk quick enough. Luckily his residuals are fairly small - so the doctors aren't hampered in pushing him forward. This morning I came in to the NICU and found that they had put Samuel's feeding tube through his nose (getting him ready for bottle feeds in the coming days.) Samuel has taken to blowing spit bubbles with his new-found free lips.

They gave Samuel his two month immunizations yesterday and to be honest, I'm a little nervous about it. Sure he's nearly three months old....but technically he is -3 weeks. He isn't even term yet.

He is doing a fair job of holding his temperature on his own. He still needs a few blankets piled on top of him, but at least he isn't back in the isolette.

Samuel is dropping his heartrate off and on today - but they haven't been low drops. I'd like for him to stop them altogether but it looks like it may take him a little longer to grow out of that.

So Debbie....what are we praying for you ask?.....many of the same things.

For Samuel's lungs to continue healing and for him not to breathe in milk.

For his breathing rate to slow so that they can begin bottle feeds eventually.

For his intestines to continue working as they should. To digest the milk as quickly as they need to.

For his eyes to develop normally - that he won't need surgery and that is vision will be fine.

For his brain to develop normally - that there will be no negative side effects from the resolved brain bleed.

For no cerebral palsy.

For growth.

For his hernias to remain soft and small so that they won't have to operate until he is older (or at all.)

For his CO2 to come down just a hair more - it needs to be between 35-45 and his has been 48 or so.

For good head ultrasounds until we go home.

What you've prayed for that has changed for the better:

Samuel is making dirty and wet diapers on his own for the most part. They have to give him an enema occassionally...but he generally doesn't need one.

He is beginning to rest a lot more now that he is bundled in his blankets.

He is on very minimal oxygen - some of the nurses feel like the doctors just need to take him off.

They are feeding through his stomach.

His CO2 has been in the 40s for a week or two now.