Day 19

This morning started off well.  Walker looked good and was doing well all around.  Over night his belly did get slightly bigger so the doctors decided to keep his feeds at 2cc for today instead of increasing them.  They had also lowered his NIPPV-CPAP rate of reminder breaths down from 20 to 15.  He did well with his new rate all morning and seemed pretty settled.

He also continued to do well with his 2cc feedings throughout the day and was up to 1lb. 11.8oz, we are really hoping he will be able to maintain his weight and not go back down!  Walker was having such a good morning that the nurse said Mommy could have some kangaroo time!  I was able to hold Walker for 2 hours and he seemed very content the whole time.  He settled right in on Mommy's chest and really seemed to enjoy his kangaroo time today!

The afternoon went a little differently, Walker had a couple of bradycardia episodes and scared Mommy, Granny, and Uncle David pretty good.  Those are when, because he is so little, he forgets to breath and then because of that his heart rate drops.  Usually he can recover on his own, but occasionally the nurse has to pat him on the back to remind him to continue breathing.  The nurses say this is very common with premmies, but that doesn't make it any easier on Mommy!  Walker had several episodes in a row so the nurse practitioner decided to do an xray just to check and make sure everything was still looking good with his lungs.

The xray showed that everything was still looking fine, so the nurse practitioner said that Walker was probably just tired from his lower rate of 15.  They decided to bump his rate back up to 20 and then also gave him a chin strap because they thought maybe he was loosing some of the pressure out of his mouth.  During the excitement, Walker also had visits from his great aunt Wanda and Mimi and Bart.  Papa also came to check on the lil guy, who was pretty settled down at that point.  He ended his night on a much calmer note, but because of his episodes Daddy didn't get any kangaroo time tonight, hopefully tomorrow!

It is definitely very hard on Mommy and Daddy to watch the monitor that shows how many times he is breathing say a big 0 and then to see his heart rate begin to fall.  However, we are trusting and having faith, that this is all God's plan and Walker is going to be fine.  We are taking things day by day and sometimes hour by hour so please continue to pray for our strong lil man!