Day 35 & 36

     Nate gets a gold star for his behavior the past 2 days! He has gained weight AND been a rock star with his breathing. Last week, he had been getting anywhere between 30-40% oxygen running through his CPAP and still struggling with frequent spells. For the past 2 days he has been staying between 21-34% with fewer spells. Room air is 21% oxygen so he is doing about as well as he possibly could be on his CPAP. They have even started to wean him off of his rate. In order for his to graduate to just a regular oxygen cannula, he has to first wean off of his rate and then off of his pressures. He is still too tiny to do all of that anytime soon but he is definitely on the right track!

     Not only is Nate being a very good breather, but he also gained a little weight...Yay!! His weight was down about a 1/2 ounce yesterday but he managed to gain a whole ounce today. He's up to 1 lb 11.2 oz. His doctor is so pleased with him that she agreed to go up a very tiny bit on his feeding. We'll see how he does tomorrow :)

     This poor kid's biggest struggle is going to be his weight. Nate had surgery to remove a diseased part of his intestine at 1 week old. It wasn't much but it left him with only about half of his small intestine for absorbing nutrients. He has to be a whopping 6 pounds before he can have a follow up surgery to reconnect everything. It seems like he'll never get there but the nurses and doctors assure us that one day we'll look at our little man and not remember just how small he was. I can't wait until that day :)

Nate during cares with no mask. He's very feisty when they start picking on him but soon gives up and assumes this position. He just wants them to hurry up so he can get back to sleep. This picture was actually from a week ago so he doesn't look as "chubby" as he does now :)