Back to the Future

Today Josh reached a new milestone in his little life - he is now back to his birth weight of 2lbs, 2oz!  At just 12 days of life he has been able to gain back the 8% of his body weight that he lost.  Our nurse practitioner said today she thinks he is starting to grow into his wrinkles some.  This is pretty exciting because it means we are on our way to becoming a big boy and taking steps toward going home. 

Josh has continued to tolerate his feeding well and was increased to 8ml every 3hours today.  He will be increased later this evening to 9ml every 3 hours.  We have almost reached his goal which is 10ml every 3 hours.  As he gets closer to his goal his IV nutrition is being weaned down and will soon be off.  This is great news because he will gain weight with the breast milk feedings and it will decrease his chances of infection some without the IV nutrition.  Josh's bilirubin level was down drastically (7.8 to 2.5) thanks to the bili lights and pooping.  So the bili lights are back off and Josh can again gaze around his world because his sunglasses are off. 

Josh continues to do well with his breathing tube and will continue on it through the weekend.  The primary team of doctors will reassess next week to see if he is ready to come off the ventilator.  He is continuing to have a good amount of airway secretions while on the ventilator and is requiring suction.  The problem with suctioning a preemie is that when you suction them it temporarily damages the cilia in his lungs and causes him to make more secretions.  Even though Mom and Dad understand this, it still makes them nervous when his oxygen saturation goes low because he needs to be suctioned or because of his apnea.  But after a long talk with our doctor today, we feel pretty confident that it is ok for his oxygen saturation to be lower than an adult's (because they are during all of pregnancy anyways) and are working to control our reaction to the monitor as long as Josh looks ok.  We will see if we are able to do this successfully.

Josh spent a good bit of today sleeping and his awake time attempting to pull out his ET tube and interacting with Mom and Dad.  We are thankful that the tape they use to hold it in is very strong!  Otherwise, Josh would have removed his ET tube and his feeding tube by now.  He has very pretty blue eyes right now.  We will see if they stay that color as he gets older.  Mom and Dad didn't get to do any kangaroo care today because our nurse was very busy, but we hope to get some good cuddle time tomorrow.  Mom enjoyed having Dad come and work from the hospital part of the day today.

Prayer Request:

• Josh would have less respiratory secretions and need suctioning less.  Mom and Dad would also be more relaxed with  not having him suctioned as often too.  Also that he gets strong enough to be able to cough up secretions on his own after coming off of the ventilator.
  
• Josh would continue to tolerate his feedings and continue to gain weight.
• Josh would not develop any infections while he is in the NICU so he can focus his energy on growing bigger and stronger.
• Josh's brain would continue to mature so that he will be ready next week to have his breathing tube removed and be placed back on CPAP.
• Mom and Dad would get some much needed rest this weekend
• Mom's milk supply would continue to improve and she would continue to heal from her surgery.

Praises:

• Josh is back to his birth weight of 2lbs, 2oz!
• Josh had another good day and continues to show signs of his little personality coming through.
• Josh is tolerating his new feeding rate and will be able to continue to have his feedings increased.
• Josh's bilirubin declined dramatically (because of his great pooping) and he was able to come off the bili light.
• Dad was able to come and work from the hospital some this afternoon and spent some extra time with Josh too!
• Mom and Dad are thankful for their friends who have come to visit or sit with Mom as she spends lots of time each day in the hospital.
• Mom and Dad are especially thankful for the wonderful meals that friends and family have been providing.  They have all been delicious, and allow Mom and Dad to focus on Josh.

Shout out to Richard and Carrie who went into labor today.  Josh is looking forward to a playmate.

 (Josh taking a nap on his tummy)

 

 (Dad trying to get some work done, but all the beeping in the NICU is a bit distracting)

 

 (Josh initially placed on his back with the back of his head resting on the mattress)

 

 (Josh two minutes later after deciding that he preferred to be on his side... he did it himself)

 

 (A crocheted blanket that was given to Josh to cover his isolet and block out light)

 

 (Josh giving us a big yawn after an eventful day.. you know... eat, sleep, poop, pee, repeat)