Lots of GOOD news!!

I'm so sorry for not updating sooner. To my defense, I've been pretty tired and busy - b/w pumping every 2 - 3 hours and trying to sleep in between at night, trying to spend some time with Aislynn and going back and forth to the hospital to spend time with Logan, there is hardly any down time left. Well, there really isn't any 'down' time left anymore anyway!

We had a few rough days with Logan having a chest tube and being on both ventilators. It was awful going in there and seeing him so sedated, but even worse seeing him in pain and agitated when the sedatives had begun to wear off. But, in the big picture...that was all short lived.

His chest tube was taken out on Friday!! They water sealed it on Thursday, but the next xray was questionable, and they didn't think the pneumothorax had healed yet, so they unsealed the tube. Friday, they sealed it again - and did more xrays...and no more pneumothorax! So, they took the chest tube out.

They decided on Saturday to wean Logan off one ventilator (the oscillating one) to just the conventional vent. We went in Sunday and ... he was not on a vent at all! He's breathing completely on his own with the help of oxygen through the nasal canula.

Logan's lungs are still hazy - so he's still dealing with preterm lung disease...but that's ok. One thing at a time, and he gave us 2...I'll take that! His oxygen level is at 40%, and room air is 21%...so he's still got a ways to go. He's also receiving it at 2 L of pressure, and they've tried several times to wean him to 1 L, unsuccessfully. He's just not ready to handle that on his own yet. Regardless...I'm so thankful for the huge leaps forward we've made (he's made) in the past few days. The nurses that were working last week came in after the weekend and are all amazed at how well he did over the weekend.

He still gets very upset and agitated any time he is moved, touched or 'messed with' (diaper changes, etc...). When this happens, his respiratory rate shoots up like crazy and his oxygen saturation goes way down. As he has more comfortable breathing time, he should be able to better regulate this... which brings me to...

I FINALLY got to hold him on Sunday!! Matt and I got there while the doctor's were doing their rounds, and the dr. asks me if I've gotten to hold him yet - I couldn't even say no, the tears were just coming too fast. That was not a good question to ask me! He tells the nurse to go ahead and take his UAC (umbilical artery catheter) out and let me kangaroo with him. I held his head and arms and Matt held his legs while they took out the catheter...poor baby did not like the tape being removed or the tubing coming out. He didn't bleed for long once it was removed. Then, I got to kangaroo with him. It was so relieving. 8 days old and I hadn't been able to hold him....another thing that is completely unnatural. As soon as he was laid on my chest, he calmed down and his monitor showed him breathing beautifully. Amazing. Matt was able to kangaroo with him too...he was so comfortable being held. I've been able to hold him every day now. I love it.

Oh yeah - another huge thing...they started feeding him (through a tube) on Sunday morning! He's been tolerating the breastmilk very well, so they've slowly increased him from 3 mL every 3 hours to 18 mL every 3 hours. He might be getting more tomorrow, we'll see. It's pretty exciting because I can't do much - but I am pumping...it's about the only thing I can do for him. And now he gets to have it. I'll be able to start trying to feed him by Friday. The nurse practicioner thinks he'll do well with it because he gets so worked up, but he loves his pacifier...so she thinks it will be calming to him - eventually helping him learn to self regulate himself too.

So much has happened in the past few days, I'm sure I didn't cover it all...but I think I got all the main things! Prayer works...it really is amazing to see what strides he's taken so quickly. I really am so very thankful.

As for Aislynn, my sweet girl. She's having a hard time understanding why I'm not around. Although she was very happy the entire time I was in the hospital on bedrest, then recovering from the c-section, she was still affected by everything that's going on. She doesn't like the hospital now, because it's where I went and didn't come home. Her sleep has gotten much more restless...she wakes up crying now, calling for mommy and daddy. It breaks my heart. I know she's being well taken care of when I'm not around...and she is happy, but my poor girl...her world has been turned upside down. I'm constantly reassuring her that I will come back. I can't wait to bring Logan home and get some sort of routine back in our lives. I feel that will help her so much. I know that she will get through this too...but it's still hard because a 21 month old just can't really understand all that is happening. Makes me teary just thinking about it.

Matt's still going to work - I know he'll need to take some time off eventually...and it will probably be needed when we do bring Logan home, so for now, he needs to keep his schedule the same. It also keeps some kind of normalcy around.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers, food and everything that you've done. We saw with Aislynn just how blessed we were to have you all in our lives - and we get to see it again. I'm so thankful for friends/family like you all. This is such a rough time in our lives - and I get so much encouragement from what most would consider the little things.

Ok...that's all for now. I'll post some pics next!