ANOTHER GOOD DAY

I keep trying to think of clever titles for each post but I feel like I should just keep calling them ANOTHER GOOD DAY. It seems that every day we get more positive news and he is doing great. The doctor today said that he is doing what he wishes every preemie baby would do. That was fun to hear. 

Justin gained another 20 grams, not quite an ounce, but slowly creeping up towards that 3 lb mark! When I was pregnant, my goal was to keep him in there until he was around 3 lbs but he had a mind of his own, obviously, and decided to come a little early!! The doctor increased his flow in the nasal cannula to 2 liters instead of 1 liter. He was still needing a little more oxygen then before and they like to keep those numbers down. It's not a bad thing when they have to increase or decrease those numbers, just giving him a little help. And, so far it is working. His bilirubin levels are slowly creeping up so they are just keeping an eye on things. They are not worried about increased levels at his age (almost 2 weeks!) but will still watch it to make sure it doesn't get out of control. I forgot to mention yesterday, they changed his feeding increases to every four hours instead of every three. Nothing to do with him at all, they just coincide with his cares now. It is easier for the nurses to remember to do an increase every time they do cares which are also every four hours. Today, they decided to increase a little more aggressively by going up .2 mls every four hours instead of .1 ml. The goal, as long as he tolerates everything, is to get his IV out by tomorrow or Sunday. I know the IV is needed to help him right now but I will be SO glad to have it out. That will just be one less thing he will be attached to. Tonight, we will head back down again for our family holding/reading time. We got one of my favorite books as a gift (The Big Hungry Bear) and Jason has never heard of it before. So, I think that will be what we read tonight! Grandma and Grandpa are also coming down for a quick visit but they only get to stay for 10 minutes. I am sure all the grandparents can't wait for longer visits and more interaction with him. It's hard when you can't do as much as you would like, I know how it feels. The first few days of barely being able to touch him were really hard! 

Hopefully we can get some new pictures posted soon. That is sort of Grandpa's (my dad's) task as he takes some amazing shots. We'll see if Justin is more awake tonight to get some good ones. Happy Friday.