August 22 Update

Little man is still cruising. He kinda hit a stride all last week and we didn't really have a bad day until Friday. All week he rotated between the cannula and the CPAP in an attempt to help his nose heal from the rubbing of the mask. Friday night he was really lethargic again, but this time there was no apparent reason. He wouldn't even hold his mouth closed, which was weird to us while we held him. And his O2 saturation was running consistently low. So we we were concerned that night. Nursed determined that he was tired from being on the cannula most of the week. He does okay on the cannula, but he doesn't need to work that hard, and we believe it wore him out.

So they made a decision to keep him on the CPAP constantly over the weekend. He has been holding strong since then and doing well.

The air Harrison is breathing is a little over 30% O2. We breathe 21% O2. So he is pretty close. Doctors want him under 30% and even though he did so well on the cannula last week, they haven't been able to consistently get him under 30% without his saturation going to low. So yesterday they ordered a X-ray to check out his lungs. They found that there are very small portions of his lungs that haven't opened up as much as they would like. His lung volume hasn't maximized which is okay and normal for someone as young as him he just needs some help. His lungs came out of the womb kinda rigid like brand new balloons. And it will take some time for them to stretch and become more pliable as he uses them. But he lacks the muscles to do so well. The CPAP is more helpful for developing his lung volume because of the constant pressure. They turned up the pressure a bit when they discovered this about his lungs hoping to help them develop.

Saturday night I (Josh) actually got the chance to attend the Denver Broncos preseason game vs. the Buffalo Bills. The Ronald McDonald House provided tickets for many of us staying at the house. Anyway that night we couldn't go at 8pm so we went at 12 midnight. We learned then that Little Man broke through the 2lb threshold. That was an exciting milestone! He weighed 930 grams tonight. We are hoping to break the Kilogram mark by the weekend. Tonight they bumped his feeds up again from 11ml to 13 ml/2 hrs.

A few things you can pray for:

-That he continues to eat and gain weight. 1 Kilo by the weekend.

-That his lungs begin to stretch and develop over the next few days.

-That his red blood cell development continues to be okay. He gets a Blood lab Wednesday night to monitor this.

-That he tolerates the CPAP well and over an appropriate amount of time graduates to a O2 Cannula for good.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and love.