Nice Surprises

Surprises aren't always good, but many times when they are, they are great. As was the case today. Early this afternoon we received a call from Luke's newest resident physician who had some good for us. They did his 6-week brain ultrasound today, which we didn't expect to happen until Thursday and it looked good. Nothing of concern - woo hoo! They also said that he was up to 17ML's of milk per feeding and since the amount of I.V. nutrients he was getting was so little, they decided to take him off of those early as well. Because of that, if everything goes well for the next 48 hours and they don't need to give him anything via his "pik" line (special IV in his foot), they're going to take that out too.

When we went to visit tonight, I was also pleasantly surprised when his night shift nurse asked us if we wanted to hold him again. I was lucky enough to receive the honors a 2nd time because Stacy has a bit of an ear infection that she's been dealing with so we decided to be cautious and refrain from her handling Luke until it goes away. This time, rather than holding him "kangaroo care" style, I just held him in my arms while he was wrapped up in the blankets from his isolette. It was nice to be able to look down and see him, which I couldn't do very well when I was holding him the other day, but I did miss the closeness of feeling him rather than the bundled blankets. He did extremely well the whole time, held my finger and even slept a little while I held him.

The doctors have been able to continuously drop the rates and pressures on his ventilator this week which is great and he's been able to maintain a low oxygen level setting as well. We'll keep hoping and praying that this continues as well as his growth as he nears the 3 lb mark.