5-14-08 7 weeks old

The doctor called and said Blake had a bad morning. He had a lot of dsats and bradys. They are going to switch up his meds and try something new. They are taking him off of the arithromicyn and trying prilosec and one other med that they hope will work better on his reflux and clearing out his tummy. The docs also told us that most babies at his gestational age are off of the cpap at this point, but Blake's lungs are not developing like they should. They are trying everything to help him and they are coming around, just slowly. They said his lungs can not properly heal until his reflux calms down and he is able to hold down his food better and not aspirate it. They messed with his rates on his cpap machine. They lowered one and upped another. It seems to be working bc he has been around room air at 21% most of the time. Rob saw him last night for the first time in two weeks. He is so much bigger than when he last saw him. We made friends with the couple that had a pair of twin boys next to us in the bay. Turns out they are our new next door neighbors at the RMHC. It is funny how they are directly next to us at both places and are around our ages. Anyway, they got moved up to bay 5 which is the next step up to going home. They were only 34 weeks so are much better off than Blake. A newborn baby is now in one of their spots. I walked in and thought that baby was huge compared to blake and he is only a newborn. I get so used to seeing Blake and thinking he looks big, and then you see a normal size baby and realize how small he still is. He is 3 lbs 4 oz now. He still had some barium contrast in his intestines so they gave him a suppository to make him poop. Wow did he poop. He went through 3 diapers. Oh they are putting the bigger diapers on him now too. They are huge on him but he was peeing out of the other ones. Too much peepee and not enough diaper to hold it all in. lol. Rob held him after he got done pooping like crazy and he felt much better. Blake was wide awake the entire time his daddy was holding him. I caught Rob tearing up and crying a little. He loves his little boy. Him and Blake didn't take their eyes off each other. It was adorable. Of course when I went to hold him later that afternoon he was tired and only opened his eyes a few times to peak at me and then fell back asleep. We went back in the evening to give him his bath. Right before he reached up and grabbed onto this rod that holds a syringe that is connected to one of his feeding tubes. It allows for the extra air to escape his belly. Well Blake reached up and grabbed the rod and pulled himself up off his bed. He did a pull up. He is so strong. It amazed us and his nurse. He didn't like getting wet but loved being clean and was happy after it was all done and he was dry. Oh and he is at 8 cc's of milk every hour