November 8th

It's a late entry tonight, but at least I'm getting to it. We had a great time at our praise team Thanksgiving dinner. We are a couple of weeks early for the official Thanksgiving, but it's never a bad time to be thankful for all that God provides.

Missy has continued to improve in her ability to get around. She was able to attend the dinner without much discomfort until near the end. She began to have a fair amount of pain at that time. She, Anna, and my mom headed home while I stayed to practice.

Miss was able to spend a fairly long period with the little guy today. Emotionally she continues to have a rough time with Noah's general state and the fact that he has to stay at the hospital. I pray that God continues to give her strength in this trial. She's been through a huge amount and I know that it is difficult for her.

After our visit last night, I felt good that Noah's PDA had closed. However, this morning they heard a murmur and a repeat echo showed that there was a 1 mm PDA. Noah is undergoing a second course of ibuprofen. He will receive that nightly for three nights again. Clinically, he looks pretty good, though the difference between his upper and lower blood pressure numbers was quite wide today.

He continues to only receive about 2 mL of milk through the tube every 6 hours. He is getting almost all of his nutrition via the IV in his belly button. Once that blasted PDA closes, they will begin to ramp up his feeds so that the IV can come out. Also, he will get to start trying to take some feeding by mouth this coming week since he will be 33 weeks gestational age on Saturday (they normally start trying to feed by mouth between 33 and 34 weeks). Apparently when Miss visited with Noah today he started to root around like he was trying to nurse. That's a hilarious image to me; the little guy rooting around like he's on a mission... Miss keeps putting him back up and he keeps rooting down. "Hey mommy, I've got something I'm trying to do here!"

He was taken off of the phototherapy lights today. That's a step in the right direction. He was resting quite comfortably in his isolette when we saw him and it was nice not to be blinded by his phototherapy. Those lights make it look like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

As an aside, does anyone know what close encounters of the first, second, or fourth kinds are? Also, how do you have a distant encounter?

I had some things that I was going to discuss in the blog tonight, but those will have to wait for a later time as I'm a bit tired this evening. I am so thankful for everyone who continues to be such an encouragement to our family. We greatly appreciate the prayers, visits, calls, etc.

Thanks for checking on Noah and Missy 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

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33