Luke's Big Weekend

Stacy, Luke and I started 2010 with a great weekend. Have a look!

SATURDAY:
On Saturday, Luke's nurse introduced him to something new...clothes!! We couldn't believe how "big" he looked when we saw him in his little camoflage onsie with "Major Cutie" on the front - an outfit his nurse came across in the NICU and thought it'd be perfect for him.

Clearly, he liked it as you can tell by his smile...

Part of the reason he looked like such a big boy is that he's continuing to grow! He's now up to 15 ML's of milk per feeding and is around the 2lb 8oz mark. We're also starting to see him grow in length as he's up to 37cm as of his last measurement. He's doing great with his feedings and we hope this continues.

SUNDAY:
As great as Saturday was, Sunday took the cake as I, his daddy, got to finally hold him for the first time. I was actually somewhat prepared for it as his nurse actually offered to do it on Saturday, but he was 'desatting' a bit and we thought it'd be better to wait until he was a little more receptive to touch, so we planned to do it today.
Even though I thought I was prepared, it was still an amazing and surreal experience. The first few minutes were a little tense as they go though the juggling act with all of his wires and IV and breathing tube and all the rest of his gear, but once he was all set, he was more than receptive and really seemed to like it. They only had to bump up his oxygen a little and he only had two little "spells" where they just gave him a few extra breaths - nothing big.

For me, as I said, it was surreal. It took probably 20 minutes or so before I finally felt a moment of calm and the reality of where I was and what was happening started to settle in. This was my son. I was holding him for the first time - a moment that only comes once. While Stacy was busy trying to balance taking photos, video and soak up the moment herself I just sat as still as I could and try to feel his little breaths and hear the little noises he was making, which was mostly his breathing tube, but he's also started to try and suck on his fingers and thumb a bit while he's getting milk in his feeding tube so I could hear him doing that as well.
I stared up at his monitor a lot trying to gauge his reaction (SAT level) to when I would softly talk to him, or kind of sing to him. The whole time he laid pretty still other than a few little kicks here and there. There were also times when I could feel him sort of grab onto my chest and squeeze a bit. It was an amazing time that I'll never forget.



In general, he's doing quite well right now. They've been able to reduce the rate on his ventilator the last few days and once it's a little lower then where it is currently (32 as of Sunday night), they hope to be able to start reducing the pressure level as well. This will be an important week for Luke as he'll be 6 weeks on this coming Thursday and will get a lot of important tests. We'll keep you all posted as usual.