Thursday August 18th

Sorry I have not posted in the last couple of days.  I was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and we got home a lot later than we expected.  Since we have gotten home it has been pretty busy. The girls were so excited for mom to be home and for things to settle back into "normal."  Mike and I headed back to the hospital this morning after we dropped Madigan off for school.  We are happy to report that Michael is still doing very well.  He has now gained 2 ounces and weighs 1 pound 12 ounces.  He has also been tolerating his oral feeds pretty well.  He has been digesting most all of the breast milk they are giving him.  Today they flipped him over so he can start laying on his belly, and he looked pretty comfy.  As far as breathing goes he is still doing pretty well.  We spoke with the neonatologist today and he said he had hoped he would be off of the ventilator by now.  But he is just not strong enough to breathe completely on his own.  He said what they would do now is push forward with his nutrition ( via his TPN) in hopes to get him a little bigger and stronger and hopefully be able to extubate then.  His doctor said he was really happy with how well he was doing, however with premature babies things can change daily.  Mike and I are so thankful for all of the prayers for Michael.  God is SO good and we thank him for the amazing progress Michael has made so far.

This is Michael today finally getting to lay on his belly.  ( He always looks so greasy because they cover him in aquaphor every 4 hours when they change his diaper and move him around)

This is a close up of Michael.  He was born so early that his eyes are still fused shut.  They don't expect him to be able to open them for a couple of weeks.  Since his eyes are still fused, they keep his bed covered with a blanket to try and mimic him still being in the womb.  They said once a babies eyes open up in the womb they can actually see a lot of light, so they will remove it sometimes once his eyes open up. 

This is to show how tiny his feet are!  We have another picture I will try to upload another time that shows how Mike's wedding ring fits on both his foot and his hand.