Thanking God for Peace, Progress & Par

Another great day in the NICU 2! I arrived to find Par sound asleep after his mid-morning feed. He did really well over night and his feeds were upped to 35cc's every 3 hours. He then took his 2pm bottle really well and then slept for about an hour. After he woke up, he was desperate for a mommy snack--which he took and then fell asleep for another hour. He demolished his 5pm bottle and about 20 minutes later, he was ready for a mommy dessert--which he also took really well. He did so well, I was nervous he wouldn't take his next feed completely--but much to my surprise, he did fine--a little slower, but he still took the entire bottle. It amazes me how far we have come in just a week.

I was discussing Par's progress with the nurse practitioner--she agreed that he is doing really well but was cautious about pushing him--so she wants to continue upping his feeds by only 5cc's for right now--so if all goes well tonight, his feeds could be increased to 40cc's every 3 hours. Also, because he is doing so well breastfeeding, his 2pm feed tomorrow will be only by breast--no bottle supplement on standby. This way, we can start transitioning from the bottle and hopefully be exclusively breastfeeding by the time we leave. Finally, if he continues to gain weight and does well with his feeds--the NJ will possibly be discontinued on Friday--that would mean he would be getting his feeds either from me or a bottle and he would lose the feeding tube....if we get to this point, then we are pretty much in the clear for the chance of needing a G-tube...but we aren't there yet--but now you know specifically what we are aiming for.

The nurse practitioner also mentioned that she wants to wait until he is off the NJ tube before she tries weaning him down on his oxygen more...he is currently on 200--the next wean would be to 100 and then to 50. So Par probably won't be weaned any more until Saturday--unless Dr. Kays makes the change himself. I told Par that if he doesn't want to go home on oxygen, he better start praying really really hard...



Below you will find a video of Par from today--this video may indicate why the doctors seem to be moving so slow with regards to Par's recovery and discharge plan--we clearly are not ready to take this baby home--poor kid....

Unfortunately, we had to give Par some bad news today--he didn't get the part for the baby Jesus in Gainesville's Living Nativity. We told him while he was practicing his role--he didn't take it too well. He then asked where the person was that makes the decisions--he said he had a knuckle sandwich for them.





We opened Christmas Cards tonight with Par--he seemed to love some of them...



but was bored with others...





and some he had a few jealous words for...we heard him mumble something about "my Boo"



We thank God for yet another day of progress. We feel so blessed for this opportunity to take this journey with each other and with Par. We continue to pray for Par's friends and especially for their parents--we know all to well that being away from our family and friends during the holidays is difficult...so our prayer for them is peace and joy to celebrate the coming of our Savior!

May the peace and joy of this Christmas season be with you and your family!

Love,
Liz, Rusty & Par