He Made It!

Yes that's right, Graham weighs 4 lbs 2.7 oz as of tonight at 8:00. Monday, he weighed 4 lbs 1.5 oz, then last night he dropped to 4 lbs 1 oz, so he gained 1.5 oz today. It must be because he took a bottle at 11:00 this morning. The occupational therapist came to meet with us and see if she thought G had any developmental issues preventing him from taking a bottle. After a few pointers from her, Graham went to town and finished the whole thing. Needless to say she thought he was just fine developmentally, she said it just may take a little time for it all to click. He was wide awake for a while afterward too. I was thrilled! Maybe he is really getting it. Thanks for the prayers and keep them coming, we now have to work up to a bottle twice per day and gradually increase until he takes a bottle for every feeding...

We do have some challenges we are facing right now that we could really use some prayer:

• Ever changing nurse personalities. We still haven't gotten used to the fact that each time we go in, there is a different way of doing things. Some nurses just have a knack for taking charge in a gentle manner, some DO NOT. We do feel confident in the care that our son is receiving, but some of the caregivers are not as good at caring for us.
• Alarms Always Beeping. Graham is attached to all sorts of monitors for heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturization, and body temperature. Each monitor has an acceptable level and will sound an alarm when he goes outside that level. Sometimes, the "leads" as they call them are not reading correctly, but most of the time if an alarm sounds it is because the little one has forgotten to breathe. We have learned the alarm by the pitch and frequency of the beeping. A slow, low beeping means his saturization level is low and he may be holding his breath or just breathing too shallow. Nurses don't get too excited about this one because typically it comes right back up. A high pitched rapid beep means that his heart rate has dropped. This one brings nurses from the woodworks. This one makes mom and especially dad VERY nervous. To put it in Alan's words "When that alarm sounds, I just want to put him down, run out of the room and throw up!" It gets our hearts racing to say the least. After an alarm like that, the mind starts racing with scary thoughts like - he is in trouble, what if he does this when we go home?, something terrible is fixing to happen, how will we ever feel comfortable that he will breathe all through the night, he really is that fragile. We are constantly reassured by the nurses that 1) this is common for preemies and 2) that he will be done with these episodes before they let him go home, but we still need some major prayers in this area (Alan especially)!
• Alan's comfort with such a small being. Each time Alan goes to hold/move/touch Graham, he seems to tense up. I know that he is so nervous that one wrong move will hurt his precious baby, but he really needs the confidence to be able care for his son and know that he will not break.

We appreciate all of you who care about us and pray for us. Each day does seem to get more normal than the one before.