NICU update

Hi all,

Liam is doing great. He's slowly stepping down on his oxygen. They even took him off oxygen support for three hours this morning, though after his heart rate slowed a couple of times they put him back on at a lesser amount...two steps forward, one step back. Overall his breathing is much improved. He no longer has the grunting or irregular breathing patterns. Mostly he's breathing slow and steady.

In other news, his jaundice is on the decline after only a day under a blue light. In addition, Liam had an ultrasound of his heart done, because nurses identified a heart murmur when looking at him. We learned that he has two little holes in his heart. One should close up as it would have if he had gone full term. The other hole may close up over time. The doctors have no worries about this news, as a lot of kids have little holes that ultimately don't affect their lifestyles. In general, they think he's doing very well for his pre-term age.

We gave him a little bottle today for the first time as we start trying to get his milk digestion going...his primary source of nutrition has been the IV sucrose drip. As I type this, the nurse has started to give him a "gatorade" like solution through his IV, along with some fats. This is a step up in his diet.

Thanks for all your wonderful notes and king words. More updates soon!

t