update on the pda, and apnea

Jack's gotten through his doses of indomethacin, and his heart murmur has only been heard intermittently, so that's a good sign that the meds are working.

He's been diagnosed with neonatal apnea, called bradycardia, which is when he forgets to breath, and his heart rate drops for more than 12 seconds at a time. They're giving him aminophylline for this. It should decrease and work itself out as he gets older and his nervous system gets more coordinated with itself.

They've extubated him, which means that they've got him off the big ventilator. He's now just got the nasal cannula-- the little nose prongs that give him humidified oxygen. This means they've turned the oxygen mix up to about 30%, but it's a trade off -- he doesn't have the invasive tube down his throat, but he is working harder to breath as he gets used to being without it. All in all this is a good thing, them weaning him off the ventilator.

Sonnet got to hold him on Saturday, and it was sheer heaven. Matt got to hold him on Sunday, and both of us were completely blissed out. Pictures are posted on the website. We did kangaroo care-- holding his little body against our bodies, letting him get warmth from us, and feeling us breath and our heartbeats.

He's now gained back all the weight he lost after he was born, so as of Sept. 10, he was back at his birth weight, 2 pounds 3.55 oz. That is SUCH good news, because now he'll start putting on weight above and beyond what he started with.

They had to take him off the breastmilk for the duration of the indomethacin, but he's back on the milk now. They put him back to 3 ccs of breastmilk every 3 hours, so we're anxious to see how that goes. He was tolerating it very well yesterday, so we're kind of hopeful that they push it back up to 6ccs every 3 hours soon.

All in all, he's doing remarkably well for as little and young as he is. He's got some problems, but they're basic preemie problems, and he's doing really well with them. He is so precious, and we both adore him with all our hearts.

He's doing really really well, for a preemie that's 27 weeks early.