17th Posting: Still Going in the Right Direction

Sorry I haven't been on here in awhile.  Been going through a bit of the "baby blues" as my mom used to call them.  Luke has helped me get past them though.  He has truly been doing well!

For the longest time his numbers were stable on the ventilator and we were fine with that.  It was great hearing he was the same versus getting worse.  For a week and a half things stayed pretty consistent.  The doctors even stopped giving him daily x-rays of his lungs because they felt it wasn't needed.  After awhile though,  it was time to shake things up.  Luke seemed too comfortable at this state.  They wanted him to get better!  So even though his oxygen and blood gas (the amount of carbon dioxide in his blood) percentages weren't as low as desired, they started adjusting the ventilator just to see what happened.  Well, to put it bluntly,  he did fantastic!!!  Before the adjustment Luke's oxygen was around 35 percent.  After, it's been around 23! He's doing so well infact, that the doctors have starting talking about the next step--cpap.  Cpap is a type of ventilator that is placed in the nostrils.  Pressurized air is put into the lungs that way.  The tubes that have been in his throat since the day he was born will be removed.  He will be able to cry (which will be cool at first but I'm sure will lose it's novelty FAST).  We will also be able to hold him much easier.  And most importantly, cpap is a solid step towards our little man coming home!

I'm posting some new pics of our superstar who now weighs a whopping 5 pounds 10 ounces at the gestational age of 34 weeks and 3 days.  You will notice he has graduated from the isolette (baby bed with a cover) to a regular cot.  I LOVE this.  Now, any time I go in, I can really interact with Luke.  I can talk and sing to him and he can gaze up at his gorgeous mommy and think, "How did I get so lucky?  When I get home, I'm going to sleep all through the night, change my own diapers, AND feed myself as a thank you to my mommy for
being SO WONDERFUL." What a great kid!

Seriously, it's awesome thinking about him coming home.  It won't be for awhile yet, but it does seem like a possibility now.  Definitely a good reason to snap out of those baby blues!