Day 51

Today Parker made a great improvement. He is off the ventilator!! He is now on SiPAP which is a little mask that goes over his nose and pushes air into his lungs. He is at a set rate at 30 right now so it will give him at least that many breaths a minute. He has been doing well and has been on room air most of the day and maintaining adequate oxygen saturations. I don't think he's a big fan of this new contraption, but it's necessary for his progression. The best part for me today was being able to hear my baby cry for the first time. It's not very often a mother wants to hear her child cry, but for me it was so sweet. His poor little hoarse cry brought a tear to my eye. Feeds remain the same right now. I think extubating him was enough for the day!

Day 50

50 days seems like a long time in the NICU, but it sure goes by fast! Parker had a pretty good day. Did another ET cpap trial for 3 hours today. Working up those lungs. Talking about taking out his breathing tube in the next day or so. Feedings are the same right now. John was able to hold him for a little while. Parker's breathing tube was a bit positional while John was holding him, so we had to put him back after about 20 min. We appreciate every minute we get to hold our little guy.

Day 49

Parker did well again today. He did another ET cpap trial for 2 hours and did well. He is up to 9cc/hr on his feeds. Doing well with that. We were going to discontinue his PICC line today, but Parker decided to puke when we did his meds through his feeding tube. Checked his belly with an X-ray and the tube was in the right spot, so he shouldn't have puked. Just a fluke I guess. So he gets the PICC line another day just in case he needs meds intravenously. I was able to hold him again today. That always makes Parker and I happy. Love me some snuggle time!

Day 48

Parker did well today. We did ET cpap trials again today. He did it for 2 hours and his blood gases were good. He had some episodes of apnea, but hardly desat, and when he did desat he recovered well on his own. Good job son! He had mom, dad and his nurse cheering him on! One step closer to extubation! His feedings are being fortified now so that he can get some extra calories in since we're making him work a little harder. Hopefully we can get his PICC line out soon too. He's been such a good boy for us!

Day 47

Parker continues to have good days! Did amazing today. He did so well that I got to hold him again. He was so wide eyed when we started and was sound asleep a few minutes into holding him. Such a good boy. We learned that he loves being swaddled. We kept him swaddled after I held him and he was an angel all afternoon. We bumped up his feedings again to 7.5cc/hr. Decreased his vent setting again and since he was doing well on them we did a cpap trial. Unfortunately it was too much for him, so it was a no go. That's ok, we can try again. At least he doesn't desat like he used to. We're still headed in the right direction!

Day 46

Another good day for our little man. Only bad news is that the final result from the new breathing tube culture did come back with MRSA. Little disappointed, but he is doing well, not showing any symptoms and tomorrow is his last day of antibiotics. So as long as he is doing well, he's fine. Although we still have to isolate him and wear our pretty yellow gowns when we visit. Parker is doing well on his feedings and is up to 6.5cc/hr. his TPN has been discountinued and continues to do well on his vent with decreased settings! Best part about today was that I got to hold him again. It was only for about 45 min because his oxygen levels wouldn't stay up where they needed to be. But I will take any amount of time I can! Love that sweet little boy!

Day 45

Today Parker had his best day ever. Did so well throughout the day. He is down even more on his vent settings. Been doing so well with his breathing! Increased his feedings again to 5.5cc/hr. The best news was that his culture from his new breathing tube came back with no MRSA! Yay! Either it was just in the old tube, or the antibiotics killed it all. Either way, for now it's gone. I'm sure they'll culture again after his antibiotics are done. We are just excited that he has been doing so well the past few days.