Midnight Post =)

Quick little post tonight. Highlights:

Praise: Jack is taking full feedings, doing well tolerating digestion of the breastmilk. They are stopping the lipids so we managed to eliminate one tube! :)

Prayer Request: Jackson is having trouble learning to swallow and cough. We are working with O.T. (as mentioned before) on techniques to help teach him some of these things. Please pray that he will continue to improve and get the "suck, breathe, swallow" technique down. We had a little "freak out" moment tonight when he spit up during his feeding...which normally isn't a huge issue, but we freaked out a bit b/c he doesn't have the normal "coughing" response and it is so easy for him to get things down in his lungs again and cause serious damage quickly. Everything was okay I think, and the nurse suctioned him immediately and no aspiration or anything, but please please pray for little Jack to start picking those things up.

Prayer Request: Jackson is having difficulty keeping his right lung fully inflated so has begun breathing treatments daily to help with that. This consists of giving him extra breaths with a compression bag several times a day to try to reinflate parts of his lungs that have collapsed. Jackson is not a big fan of the process. :) They will be taking x-rays in the morning to see if there has been any progress made throughout the day today.

Prayer Request: Jackson continues to be extremely congested and swollen. He breathes very raspy and gargly, it is really difficult to listen to, poor little thing. He still doesn't have a voice yet as being intubated requires separation of the vocal cords, so that is not uncommon, but we are anxious to hear him make some noise as that would indicate healing of his vocal cords. :)

Praise: He is doing well on his weaning off of the sedatives and drugs. He has some minimal withdrawal symptoms, but nothing extremely serious, so we are thankful. It does make me sad to see his little chin quiver (one of his withdrawal symptoms, poor little thing), but compared to a lot of babies, that isn't bad. Continue to pray for that to continue as he comes down lower off his morphine and sedative.

Prayer Request: Jack's oxygen saturation levels still aren't extremely high, probably due to lung congestion. He is now on 40% assistance, and initially was around 25% following being on ECMO, so we have gone backwards a bit. They don't seem extremely concerned, but we do know if it gets to a serious point, there would probably be talk of reintubation, so we are praying that he starts doing better or at least doesn't decline more. Please pray for that- as reintubation would be a major step backwards.

Here's a pic of Jack's pod and me holding him with all the wires/tubes/ivs...we have to scoot really close to the bed to usually hold him. We actually don't have that many anymore, but they are still a challenge. :)

Now we are off to get some more things done around the house and prepare for another day a the hospital tomorrow... so I had best be going. Sorry to post in such a "list" fashion, just thought it the easiest way of listing highlights from today and the highs and lows. :) Thanks again for all of your comments, prayers, and support in so many ways- we are so thankful. Know that even though we cannot get you all written or called back, we are so appreciative of all of the support and pray that God will bless you all so much for blessing us! =)

I've posted some pics from today/tonight of our cute little man!

Love to all!

Joe, Miss, and Jack

These are pictures of me getting ready to eat. Mommy is working with me and my pacifier to help get me to learn to "suck" while I am being fed. I think she's trying to brainwash me. =)

This is a picture of my daddy trying to make me laugh. I like to watch him make funny faces. He is a funny fellow. =)