Ups and downs

Morning five. After the great day yesterday, it should not come as a surprise that not all is going as well today. Upon his birth, one of the NICU doctors warned me that even in the best cases, micropreemies always seem to progress in fits and starts and not to be too worried when there are setbacks. Today's involves his lungs, always a concern with any premature baby. They had thought yesterday that they might try to start weaning Woody off his ventilator, but he has not shown that he's ready to do that yet, and his chest X ray this morning shows a little "haze", which can mean a lot of things.

The other concern today is that the vein line in his umbilical cord is coming out, which they aren't too happy about because the lines they put directly in him are so thin that they can't give him further blood transfusions, which will require situational sticks for that purpose. But that is not a huge concern yet.

On the brighter side, they are going to give him a tiny amount of mom's milk today to prime his digestive system for future feedings. And he is still not requiring much oxygen, so I am still optimistic about the long term prospects for his lungs.

In short, members of the World's Largest Prayer Chain^TM should pray for his lungs first and his new IV line second. And we are thankful that his glucose and blood pressure seem to be doing very well still.

Woody is 24 weeks gestational equivalent today. Or as I have jokingly referred to it, now he's minus 112 days old.