Today was momentous for Momma and Papa Pickett as we were given permission to hold our son for the first time. He was whisked away from us after his birth, so we never had that first moment that most parents get to experience. Noah handled us holding him very well. The nurse even noticed that his heart rate went down a bit when we held him.
On top of this being a great day for Mom and Dad, today was a good day for Noah's progress. He is tolerating his new ventilator more and more. Also, they were able to ween his oxygen dependence down to 56%. His morning x-rays showed that his right lung seems to have inflated again, however the top of his left lung still seems to be collapsed. All his statistics stayed in an acceptable range the whole time we were at the hospital. Noah was also given his Mama's breast milk by an IV drip for the first time in his life. He seems to be tolerating this change as well.
The nurse weighed Noah this morning- he is 13 lbs due to his edema (retaining water). The poor little guy is still very swollen, but he was a lot less swollen today than he was the last two days. This is due to the fact that they are moving him a lot more because a regular ventilator allows for a lot more movement than an oscillator-vent. They laid him on his tummy for the first time, so we were able to see his back for the very first time as well. We never thought we would be so appreciative to see our son's back, but we were very thankful for this blessing from God. Noah looked very cozy laying on his tummy :)
One other blessing today was that the nurse practitioner said, "we think he is getting better."
We know that seems obvious based on where he was 11 days ago, but you have to understand that no one on staff there has been willing to say anything like that us before. The doctors and NPs have always been very cautious with how they have stated things to us- never being too optimistic or too pessimistic. We were very pleased with this report from the NP.
Our prayer requests for tonight are:
1. Pray that we would continue to rely on God during this time and not the doctor's prognosis
2. Pray that Noah's lungs would inflate fully and that they would be healing and getting stronger every day
3. Pray that Noah's vital statistics would remain at good levels
4. Pray that Momma's milk would help the healing process
5. Pray that Noah would be able to grow strong enough to handle more weening off his ventilator and oxygen.
We love every single one of you deeply for praying for our son and us at this time. We cannot even begin to express our gratitude.
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