Days 16 and 17

Hi folks!

This blog is being written at our new digs, Stephen's folks' house. Marie and David have graciously allowed Stephen and I to stay here with them as they are less than ten minutes from Zachary, as opposed to our house which is 45 minutes away. Thanks Granny and Grandpa David!! Onto the news about our sweet boy!

Zachary is doing well. He is doing so well that both Stephen and I BOTH got to hold him today. I held him this morning, skin-to-skin. It was so amazing to feel his heart beating against mine. He stayed awake for awhile and then fell asleep against me. I was able to hold him for 45 or so minutes, and he didn't de-sat (lose significant amounts of oxygen) once! Stephen held him this afternoon. He held him in his arms for over an hour and again, no de-sats! Yeay Zachary! Zachary had a busy couple of days getting to know his Grandma Marla and spending lots of time with Granny (Stephen's mom). Grandma Lynne and Grandpa Ted will be out here in May to hold and spoil him.

He had another ultrasound of his head today. We got the best news possible, no change! Since blood takes awhile (often months) to reabsorb, this was great news as it means the bleed didn't get any bigger. Thank goodness! He had an echo cardiogram this afternoon to see how his heart is doing and we expect the results from that in the morning.

Zachary continues to show how tough he is. He continues to fight the prongs that are in his nose from the CPAP. He and the nurses are continuously having a contest of wills over whether or not he can keep the prongs out. While we completely understand why he wants the prongs out (who wants humid air going up their nose?), unfortunately he needs the oxygen, as when the prongs are out, he de-sats and back comes the nurse to put them back in. The good news is that they decreased the pressure of the CPAP from 12 down to 10. This is the initial step in weaning him off the CPAP. Again, YEAY ZACHARY!! They also increased his feeds from 12 cc's to 14 cc's and decreased the liquids ("baby gatorade"). He's doing so well!

As for Stephen and I, we're doing great. We are going to the hospital two or three times a day to see our sweet baby boy. We're enjoying being out of the hospital (remember, he was living in my hospital room with me!) and are enjoying real (not hospital) food.

Again, sorry about the lack of pictures, we are still taking them, but just haven't found the time to get them off the camera, resized and uploaded. Tomorrow's task is to go through seven weeks worth of mail that came in while we were in the hospital and then hopefully we can start back on posting the daily pictures. Please continue to be patient with us.

Thanks again for all the comments, we love reading them and hearing from you. Until next time, love to all!