Moving right along...

Today Matthew's intestines starting pushing things through, so he was able to have several bowel movements. Yeah!! Praise God! Yes, it is the little things he does these days that excites me and that includes pooping! :)

They increased his feedings from 15 to 18 ml's every 3 hours. He seems to be tolerating it very well. Praise God! If he does well at 18 ml's over night, then it looks like they will bump him up to 21 ml's every 3 hours starting tomorrow. He was weighing in at 2 lbs 10 oz. as of last night, but after all the pooping he did today, they expect his weight to be down tomorrow.

They doctor said that they will keep him on the ventilator for another week to really try and get his digestive problem under control. He doesn't do well breathing on his own when he has so much stuff pushing up on his diaphragm making it very difficult for him to breathe. At this point it is more important to get him to grow so his lungs can mature and his muscles will be strong enough to help him breathe.

The doctor said that he is doing really well on the ventilator; it's still on the lowest settings. He is doing great at gaining weight (which they say is usually a big problem for most preemies) so they are pleased to see that. It looks like he is getting plenty of nutrition from my breastmilk, however they will supplement it with calcium and phosphorus when he gets to full feeds. Apparently, it is in the third trimester where they absorb most of the calcium and since he didn't have the opportunity to do that, they are going to give him more in his feedings. Even if I double my calcium intake it still won't be enough for him.

The abnormality in the brain looks like it has gone down some but not much. They don't seem to be too concerned about it doing brain damage at this point, but then again they have never seen anything like this before either. The doctor today even thought that it might be worth documenting this abnormality and writing an article about it, since this is so unusual.

The doctor today also wanted to run more of the rare tests for the Cystic Fibrosis to be sure of what is going on with him because they can't figure him out. She said he doesn't have all the "classic" signs of what most preemies do so it makes it harder to predict what he's going to do next. I thought it was really funny when she said that Matthew read the rulebook but he has decided to play another game and use a different set of rules! Now doesn't that sound like a child of ours? :) I think we may be getting a small taste of his personality here...

Please continue to pray for Matthew to digest the breastmilk and for his intestines to start working properly so he can pass things along smoothly.
Continue to pray that the abnormality in the brain goes away completely.
Continue to pray for the lung infection to go away and that he is able to produce the right amount and type of secretions. Pray for his lungs to strengthen.
Pray that he continues to gain weight and for his muscles to get more developed and for him to get stronger.
Praise God for all the miracles he has performed on Matthew already. Pray that he continues to do so!

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support! We love you all! May God bless your lives richly!