On the 4th day since my birth day...

I am truly sleepy! Not much change today. Thankfully, last night his oxygen level needs did not continue to rise as I was worried they would. He was certainly far from the 20% need where he was earlier in the afternoon, but I am thankful they did not creep up and up all night. I think he got back up to 45 or so, but today when we got there to visit he was back down to around 30% going in his hood. Although, his blood oxygen level was only in the upper 70s to low 80s. Guess that is okay. Just not as great as the day before. This evening when I called to check on him, the nurse said he was staying at 25 for most of the afternoon, she could not move it up or down much and that with 25% oxygen in his hood, he was maintaining a blood oxygen level in the 80s, so that was better then during the night. Hopefully he will remain that 'stable' tonight as it seems he tends to need more at night for some reason. The last couple nights he has needed a little more oxygen then during the day. So hopefully tonight he will remain at 25. The next goal will be to remove the oxygen hood and just need the nasal oxygen...but he has to be stable with an oxygen amount to just go with the nasal oxygen probes. Neonatologist quickly stopped by his bed this afternoon when I was there and just mentioned that he was having a little trouble with the bottle feedings, but hopefully with some practice he would get better at it. He sucks so hard on the bottle when he is allowed to drink from it that he tends to breath really hard and has a hard time with the gulping, but again, hopefully with some practice he will master the bottle process.

90% of the time when we go to visit him, he is asleep. He tends to only wake up if you start doing something like trying to feed him or change his diaper, etc. Needless to say, he does not like to be woken up. I am sure he will be good and awake by the time he gets to come home! :) So enjoy today's picture with his eyes open!!

Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us! We could not do it without all the prayers and support.

John & Joanna