November 14th

Tomorrow marks two weeks Noah was born. It's hard to believe that so much has happened in the life of our family in those short days. It's amazing.

I had planned not to stop into the NICU to see the little man tonight because I've had a "tickle" in my throat and have been concerned that I picked up Anna's parainfluenza virus. However, after I talked to Missy there were some questions as to what exactly was going on with Noah today so I felt obligated to go by. I scrubbed up, but didn't open the isolette and touch him or breathe on him.

Noah was placed back under the phototherapy lights today. His bilirubin level has crept back up and they are preemptively restarting the lights. It could be argued not to restart them, but it isn't going to hurt him. I suspect the cause is simply that he has a baby liver that isn't doing a great job with taking care of the bilirubin like it should yet. Also, being on IV nutrition for extended periods can cause some abnormalities in liver function. My hope is that when he is off of the IV it will improve.

Speaking of feeding and the IV, he continues to do well with his feeds. He is bumping up to 18 mL tonight. At the current rate of increase he'll be up to 30 mL per feed by Saturday night. I think that when he gets near that number they will stop his IV nutrition and will shortly thereafter get that belly button IV out. That will be fantastic! Apparently today when Miss was visiting the nurse put his feed in a pump and ran it in slowly over one hour. This wasn't the case with the night nurse, but the neonatologist said that sometimes they do that and it doesn't really mean anything.

The neonatologist told me that Noah could start practicing at the breast now. I let Missy know and I think that made her happy. He has to start working on coordination and swallowing. It will be quite a while before he's taking everything by mouth, most likely. We can always pray that he takes to it and doesn't have any problems, of course. I'm just glad to finally have the feeling that we're starting to make some progress.

Noah's sprints off of CPAP have been going fairly well. It appears from the apnea log that he is doing well from that standpoint. I hope that he continues to progress and perhaps he can be off of CPAP by the end of the weekend. Now that I think about it, it seems that this weekend may have quite a few milestones.

Because I've been asked so many times lately, I finally fired the question to the neonatologist; "when do you think Noah will be able to come home?" Of course, as all physicians do (myself included sometimes), she hedged. Ultimately, there is no way to predict such things and you don't want to either give a family false hope or dash hope either. She listed the following milestones that Noah must be able to do:

1. Take all of his feedings by mouth without difficulty. This doesn't have to be all breast feeding.
2. Breathe well on his own without significant apneic (pauses in breathing) or bradycardic (slow heart rate) episodes.
3. Maintain his body temperature well while in a crib. (Little guys have difficulty keeping their body temperature up.)

Notice that these do not include stipulations on weight or age. So, now we have some goals to hang our hat on...I guess.

Missy continues to improve daily. She had her followup visit with Dr. Heinzel today and actually drove herself to the appointment. It was apparently a fairly painful visit. He told her that she was progressing along an anticipated course and he feels she's doing pretty well all in all. She has to go back next week.

Miss drove to pick Anna up from school today and also drove her to church tonight. I think from this driving that she is feeling a bit better. I will say that her pain is still present because she still has poor posture and doesn't stand up when I hug her. We are progressing though. Thank you Lord for healing our family!

For those who are wondering why I haven't posted pictures lately, there are some good reasons. First, I have been dropping by the hospital on my way home from work lately so I don't have the camera. Also, Noah isn't doing a whole lot in the way of changing so he still looks like the pictures that I posted previously. I suppose I could lead everyone to believe that there are new pictures and post ones that I have on the computer but didn't post previously. I am hopeful to get some new photos this weekend when he (hopefully) meets some milestones.

Speaking of this weekend, we are going to have visitors. Missy's dad Tom is visiting from Saturday until Sunday. He frequently flies into visit for 23 to 24 hours and then is gone again back to Mobile. Anna always enjoys visits from "Poppa." Also this weekend, Jay will be visiting. He's pulling a visit a la Tom Galloway in that he will be flying in on Sunday afternoon and leaving on Monday morning. It will be great to get to visit with both of them even if the visits are truncated.

I had planned on writing some entertaining aside here; however, Anna has come in and insisted on sitting here and "helping Daddy" write this. She has seemed a bit better from a viral standpoint today, but she certainly has been much more clingy and whiny. Hopefully she will be back to her usual self soon. Due to her "helping," I think I'll have to end tonight's entry and hope for an opportunity to freelance some tomorrow.

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

"Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights."
Habakkuk 3:18 & 19