Incredible progress & precious first moments…

What a day yesterday was! I got to the hospital about 8:30am and ended up not leaving until 9:30pm. It was the most incredible whirlwind day of amazing changes for Ian.  The day began with the doctor informing me that Ian's hematocrit was a little low (38 when they like to see 40 while on a ventilator), which means he was slightly anemic, so they decided to give him a 23cc blood transfusion.  This isn't abnormal for a preemie. He was increased to 15mL per feeding every 3 hours. His weight has also increased a bit, he’s up to 3lbs 8ozs!!!  The doctor showed us Ian's chest x-ray which had no pneumothorax, and the PIE was improved to the point that you might not even know he had it if you weren't looking for it! So the decision was made to go off the high frequency ventilator in the morning and see how he did.  He tolerated that well, so they extubated in the afternoon! We were able to be there to witness it and hear his first little cries after having that tube pulled; it was such a wonderful thing to hear!  He was then placed on a CPAP, and they took a blood gas a couple hours later which came back perfect!  They even decreased the pressure on his CPAP from 6 to 5 last night. Then this morning he was moved to 4 and this afternoon he’s been weaned down to 3! He is such a strong little man!

Ian was very feisty yesterday, which the doctors say is a good thing.  Since he was tolerating the CPAP so well I got to hold him for the first time skin to skin which was about the only thing that really calmed him down yesterday.  It was the most amazing moment, he got to lay on my chest for an hour and a half and it was such an incredibly peaceful comforting time for us both. It was by far my favorite moment since his birth and I look forward to our daily “kangaroo” time together! As long as he’s not having any complications they recommend 1 ½-2hrs of skin to skin time for us every day!!!

He was moved to an isolette to help maintain his body temperature better.  This has been the plan for awhile, but they were short of isolettes initially, and then didn't want to move him with the chest tube in. He seems to really like his isolette as it’s much quieter and consistently warm as well.

Today, Ian and I are having another wonderful day together. The nurse was quite pleased to see me walk in this morning since holding momma's hand calms him down quite a bit.  He hardly lets me leave his bedside. He’s such a momma’s boy already!   This afternoon we met with a physical therapist who taught me infant massage and Ian LOVED it! It was so amazing for me to learn another physical thing that brings him comfort and calms him. Pumping has also been going so well, and thankfully, my supply has been increasing every day so we’re well ahead of what he needs in terms of quantity at this time. I’ve even gotten over 100mL in one pumping a few times. I love doing it as it’s one more physical thing I can provide for him and another step to helping him to grow stronger so that hopefully we’re able to actually breastfeed together some day soon. We’re going to head back up to the hospital tonight to enjoy some more time with our little man. Thank you all for the support, prayers, and love you’ve sent our way this past week; we are so thankful for all the progress Ian continues to make.