Hump Day

For those of you who aren't familiar with the expression "hump day", Katie and I sometimes use it to refer to Wednesday, since it's the middle of the week, and once you get past it, it's downhill to the weekend! Katie had a student that used it while she taught at Yellowbranch Elementary in VA, and it has stuck with us since!

I think today is the start of "hump day" for Ethan. He's been so great; he's alert, has been breathing on his own, and digesting all his food. We're such proud parents! There were a couple things that we've been expecting to happen at some point. This morning, I talked to Dr. Alexander (Ethan's NICU doctor) who explained that Ethan is a little jaundiced. It's something that is very common in premature babies, so on some level we were expecting it. As I type this, Ethan has on his Oakley's and is sitting in the tanning salon! (Phototherapy is the treatment for jaundice)

The other thing is that Ethan's breathing is a little faster and shallower than Dr. Alexander would like, and although his oxygen saturation is within the acceptable range of 85-100%, it's been hanging around in the lower part of that range. Ethan is now on a nasal cannula. They currently are giving him 23% O2, which is very close to room air (21%), but they'd like to wean him off that over the next day or so.

The good news (GREAT NEWS) for today is that the IV in Ethan's umbilical cord will come out today! We will have to give his little belly button a chance to close up for a few hours, but we'll be able to hold him either today or tonight! That is such a joy for us to look forward to.

Katie is still doing great, she's walking around at 90% normal speed, and is doing extremely well with the pain. Its to the point she might better start pretending like it hurts more, or she risks losing a few sympathy points from me. (I'm just kidding of course) She's producing enough now that she's keeping up with Ethan's intake, so that is an answer to prayer of course.

Thoughts for prayer:
1) We pray that Ethan will respond well to the phototherapy, and will do well with his breathing
2) Katie is experiencing some hard emotions right now. Although she knows the truth, the notion of her body "rejecting" Ethan is very difficult for her to handle. We've spent some time in prayer, and she certainly understands that this was out of her control, and was simply God's plan for Ethan's birth. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would minister to her emotions, especially if we get to go home today.
I will edit this post and put some pictures here in a few hours. (done now!) Thanks for your love, know that we love you too and appreciate the support you all offer.
- Ken

P.S. - Below are some pics from late last night, I got to hold him in the air as his nurse changed the sheets under him!