Day 22

After today, I think we have decided that unlike most people, Walker isn't fond of Fridays.  The morning started off ok, the nurse told Mommy that he had several episodes where he decided to stop breathing again during the night.  Also, the respiratory therapist had to increase his rate of reminder puffs overnight from 20 up to 30.  Walker's labs also showed his hemoglobin was down to 9.7 from 11.3 last Saturday.  Mommy was ready to hear what the doctors has to say during rounds about the lil guy and his progress.

Dr. Check said that they try to keep their hemoglobin around 10 so Walker wasn't too far below that which meant that they weren't going to give him a blood transfusion today.  She also said that having to turn his rate back up wasn't a huge thing because after all the fact that he wasn't on the ventilator and was breathing on his own was a big deal at this point.  They also said that he weighed 1 lb. 14oz. which is good and that he was doing well with his feedings and on Mommy's milk!  They were still going to continue upping his feedings 1ml every 12 hours until Walker gets to 15cc a feeding or he stops tolerating the amount whichever happens first.

After hearing this pretty good stuff from the doctor Mommy felt a little better about the lil guy's progress.  Walker seemed to settle down and did pretty good with his oxygen levels for most of the afternoon.  He had visits from Betty Wright the Youth Minister from Admore Baptist church, Payton, Paige, Bethany, Levi, and Magdalene Gilbert the Pastor and his family from our church, Gospel Baptist church, and Betty Blessing who is from Mommy and Granny's monthly bunco group.

Mommy was hoping after these visits that the lil guy would have a calm rest of his afternoon but Walker had different plans.  He had another bradycardia episode that lasted about 2 minutes and the nurse had to get in his bed and give Walker some swift pats on his butt several times before he decided to breath again.  The nurses keep telling us that this is completely normal for preemies, but that doesn't make it any easier for Mommy to watch.  The nurse was able to get him settled back in and calmed down and then Mommy and Walker got a visit from Tiffany Neamo who works with Mommy at Collinsville Primary.  Walker was really excited to see Neamo and was moving all over the place showing her what a big boy he was!  Mommy also enjoyed visiting with Neamo and sharing some much needed laughs!

The rest of Walker's evening was pretty quiet the little guy decided to behave!  Then Daddy got to come back to see Walker after being away to work. Daddy hadn't got to hold Walker since Monday because he wasn't doing too good on Wednesday. So finally, Daddy got to hold him again! Walker's little hands kept on moving around til they found Daddy's goatee - boy did Walker like playing in that! Then Daddy put him back to bed and he settled down pretty good for hopefully a good nights rest.

No Photos, Please!

Neamo checking Walker out

Going for the beard