Today Matthew was a very busy little wiggle worm. In fact, there was one point where he was laying on his stomach with his head positioned on his left side. He picked up his head and turned it over to the right side and managed to squeeze his breathing tube. They had to quickly fix him and the tubing so he was back to normal. I was pretty shocked when I saw that. The nurse tells me that he tends to get really restless like that when it is time to eat. (This is a new development for him to have a time schedule) He was also awake a lot today and keeping his eyes open for long periods of time. I loved looking at his beautiful steel blue eyes...I wonder what color they will be when he gets older.
He is still pooping...YEAH!! As a matter of fact, he was wide awake when I changed his diaper today and I think he wanted to have fun with me because he decided to pee and poop all over me when I was changing him....that little stinker...(no pun intended) :)
Today they have officially discontinued the antibiotics for his lung infection and they are no longer giving him the aminophylline via the IV. The aminophylline was a medication used to help him to breathe better and to help him remember to breathe to prevent periods of apnea (not breathing). They are now going to be giving him theophylline, which is like aminophylline except that it is given orally via the feeding tube into the stomach. So for the first time ever, our baby will not have an IV line hooked up into his arm, hand, leg or foot!!! YEAH!!! He's got to love that; I know I do.
Apparently they will no longer be monitoring his carbon dioxide levels either. It seems that when he gets to be a certain weight the leads of the monitors for measuring CO2 don't correlate well with the blood gases, so they are no longer using them. He is still up and down on the oxygen, but I hope that will change as he gets bigger and stronger and hopefully when he is also on CPAP. He is back up to 2 lbs 10 oz. as of last night.
Keep praying that he tolerates the feeds with the additional supplement and that he continues to have bowel movements and NEVER gets the NEC infection.
Keep praying for his lungs to be getting stronger and for him to remember to breathe.
Keep praying for the abnormality in the brain to go away completely and for his direct bilirubin levels to come back down to normal.
Praise God for all the miraculous things he has done with Matthew so far and for letting us get to do the kangaroo care sooner than we thought.
Thank you very much for all your prayers for Matthew and including Jason and me in them even if we don't list a specific prayer request for us.
Jennifer:
I am so glad you are finally getting to experience some of the SO SO SPECIAL aspects of being a mom! Thinking about you getting to "kangaroo" Matthew Clay, brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat! What an amazing little fighter he is!
Love, Mindy
I am so happy that you got the chance to experience some real skin to skin contact with Matthew (there is nothing like it). God continues to amaze us in what he is constantly doing in matthews life as well as in all the lives of those people who are reading this journal. I'm sure that they have also been touched by Gods work.
We are continuing to pray for Matthew and for the both of you. Love, Seth and Dawn