Tuesday May 25

I tried to blog earlier today but blogger was deleting everything I wrote. After 3 tried I finally gave up.

Yesterday was a Awful and Wonderful day all rolled into one.

Awful: I was still having really bad chest pains from the gas/air in my diaphragm. When the pain comes I can not move and I can barely breath. The usually pump me full of morphine and in 15 minutes I start to feel better. Poor Ryan has to sit beside me feeling helpless. He has been my hero though it all though. He holds my hand and talks me through everything. He is very encouraging and repeatedly tells me what a good job I am doing (even when I am crying and screaming in agony).

Wonderful: I got to hold Everett last night. We were not expecting to be able to hold him for a week or so because his Oxygen levels are so low and his breathing is so fast. Yesterday afternoon we had told them that we planned to be back at 8 pm to see him again and the nurse in the NICU said that is when they will have him out of his incubator to be weighed. Once he was weighed his levels were good so she told me I could hold him. I got to hold him for about 7 minutes and it was the most amazing feeling ever. He was actually pretty content and if his Oxygen levels were better he probably could have stayed out longer. Both Ryan and I cried though as I held our tiny little baby in my arms.

Yesterday when I spoke with the pediatrician he told me that they suspect he may have pneumonia. He had 2 x-rays already and will have another chest x-ray tomorrow. If he does have it he will have to stay on antibiotics a little longer.

Today Everett made huge leaps and bounds. He has showed signs of being interested in eating so they tried him on some 5ml of breast milk and he totally sucked it down then became very calm. His breathing slowed and he was more peaceful. Normally babies like him can not handle sucking from a bottle because it requires too much effort and energy so they get a feeding tube. We were told that Everett will probably have one, but if he can keep this up he will not need one. They have already bumped him up to 8 mls and at midnight he will get 11mls. Also he finally had his first poop today. Which if you are unaware is a huge deal. We are so proud of him.

Tonight we were back for 8 pm and I got to change his diaper, feed him his bottle and then Ryan got to to hold him. While Ryan was holding him Rawley was touching his head, talking to him, kissing him and letting Everett grab his finger. During this time Everett had the most steady rates on the monitor. Even while out of the incubator his Oxygen levels were higher than when he is in. The nurse was so impressed. She told Rawley that Everett must really love him and the sound of his voice. It was a very wonderful moment.to hold him.