November 13th

Noah continues to plug along on his course to coming home. Missy was able to spend about two hours holding the little squirt today. He was off of the CPAP the whole time and seemed to do well. He is now starting to have "sprints" off of the CPAP. This will include three hour periods a couple of times a day to see how he tolerates being off CPAP. As he does well, they will increase the frequency and then the duration of the periods off of CPAP until he is completely off.

From a feeding perspective, Noah is up to 14 mL as of tonight. He's inching toward those full feeds. He continues to tolerate the feedings well. He's got more breast milk in the freezer at the hospital than the nurses know what to do with. I'm sure once he gets going though, he'll burn through that. He will get to try oral feedings next week according to the neonatologist. I suspect that this is more of an issue with his being off of CPAP completely. The swallow coordination comes together at 33 to 34 weeks gestational age and he will be 34 weeks on Saturday.

Missy is continuing to do better. She is moving around a bit better every day. I still suspect that she will be sore for six or more weeks as a result of all of the trauma that she endured. She has a follow up visit with Dr. Heinzel tomorrow and has quite a bit of trepidation regarding that, especially the examination portion. I thank God that she is here to fret over those sorts of things.

She's been having some back pain lately that I think is largely the result of her poor posture. She has been hunched forward since getting home from the hospital due to the pain from her incision. I have been trying to help with some back massage, but I'm not really a trained masseur.

Anna is better today. Her cough and other symptoms have improved. She was happy to see me when I arrived home and reported that she had a great day at school. We will likely not take her to see Noah until Thursday or Friday to allow for resolution of her symptoms. So far, she hasn't seemed to notice it much. She continues to faithfully pray every night that God will "help Noah get better." She's such a great big sister.

My schedule right now is not the best for our family situation. I didn't get out of the hospital until about 19:30 this evening. I went straight to see Noah for a little bit and then came home in time to read Anna her Bible stories. I am thankful that I at least got to visit with them both. There have been times before when I didn't get to see Anna awake for three days. Noah is almost always sleeping right now, so that's not a problem...

Thanks again to everyone who continues to read about Noah. Also, thanks to all our friends for their support in so many things. We can't do this without you. You are God's hands reaching into our lives. I pray that we will be able to reach into yours as well.

Thanks for checking on Missy and Noah today.

Please pray for the following:
Noah's neonatologists and nurses
Missy's OB/GYN, Dr. Heinzel
Strength for our family, especially Missy
Opportunities to be salt and light to others
Noah, and his big sister Anna, that they would come to know the Lord at a young age
Anna's speedy recovery from her illness

"He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him."
Psalm 91:15