An Update

Jack is doing great. He is no longer on antibiotics because his blood work came back after 72 hours without any infections. He is no longer on a C.P.A.P. (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) to help him breathe, but just a blender (no oxygen, just a little flow into the nose). As his lungs develop and strengthen, his retractions (pulling in of his chest when he inhales) will diminish and they'll do trials without the blender.

Jack lost a little weight after birth like most newborns and is now 4lbs8oz. He is tolerating his feedings of my milk well and they've increased from 6 to 18 cc's over the past two days. He is being fed through a tube through his nose into his stomach now, but I can't remember why right now. When he can be held for longer periods by me, we'll try to help him learn to nurse through Kangarooing (skin to skin contact on the chest - good for temp, and hearing heart beat too).

The main issue now apart from developing lungs and being able to tolerate room temperature is that Jack has Jaundice (liver not mature enough to rid the blood of bilirubin - the breakup of old red blood cells). Ethanael did too. Jack is receiving phototherapy of two overhead florescent lights and lies on a glowing biliblanket. Being hydrated with breastmilk and passing stools (he needed a suppository) also helps decrease bilirubin levels. Jack's level dropped from 17 to 14.3 in the last day. We'll be able to hold him more when he doesn't need to stay under the lights.

I have some great pictures that I'll post soon. Jack looks like he's in a tanning booth because Jaundice makes your skin orange and he's in an incubator with lights on and a little mask that has sunglasses printed on it. He was very alert when they took his mask off for a bit this morning, and now that his eyes aren't puffy from the C.P.A.P., he was opening them wide and looking around.