Quality Time

Hey, it's me Brian. I thought I would give Annie a break from the blog tonight. It has been a while since I have participated in the blogging activities as it has been non stop traveling back and forth from Dallas to Houston. Weekends are not long enough. Enough about me!

Mommy was off to a shower this morning so Drake and I got some quality time in together. I held him in my arms in the recliner while I did some reading...this was something I have not really experienced yet. Hopefully we will be able to do this soon at our house enjoying some football together. I have only held him two other times; once while still on the ventilator and the other was for five minutes before they put him back on the CPAP after his first run on the cannula.

He is inching towards the 5# mark weighing in at 4lbs 15.7oz. He's a growing boy; hmmm, maybe he needs a couple of my protein shakes. He is still on the cannula, however he is on a pretty high flow rate of 2.5 liters. This can be compared to Kennedy where she was at 1.5 when she was first put on it. This is monitored closely and may mean he will have to go back to CPAP again...we are cheering him on and praying for his lungs to quickly grow strong. He is still receiving the antibiotics via injections since they cannot get IV's to last...yes, this is extremely sad to watch as they say the type of injection is very painful.

Kennedy...enough said, she is awesome! Every weekend I get to see her, she gets stronger and stronger. In her overall strength as well as her breathing and eating. As Annie mentioned, she is getting to take a bottle once per day now. Averaging 15 ml per day, but today she took in an astonishing 35 ml. She was exhausted after taking in this quantity of milk in such a short time, much like I get after a Thanksgiving meal. She did have another big scare with a heart rate drop due to her little body forgetting to breath. The nurse had to stimulate her by picking her up and bringing her back to it. It took some time while she rapidly lost color. This only shows that we just aren't quite ready for special care.

Pictures:
1) Drake & his paci
2) Kennedy
3) Kennedy tired after 35mL
4) Cake at the shower
5) Kennedy & Aunt Gigi
6) Daddy & Drake