More updating (Joshua)...

Little Joshua Emmitt has been coming along very well. After losing 5 ounces last week (he got down to 3 lbs 3 oz.), he has bounced back and now weighs a "whopping" 3 lbs. 12 oz. He does still have a heart murmur (most newborns, even preemies, lose the murmur after a few days or up to a week after birth). They did an echocardiogram earlier this week and determined that the lingering murmur doesn't warrant any medication or procedures yet (in fact there is still the possibility it may still fix itself, just later than usual), but they are monitoring his heart and vitals closely. He was also introduced to nursing and bottle feeding this week, but we still have a long way to go.

Johsua has had good and bad days (almost always good days) - good days are when there have been only a few or no events (beeping monitors), successful bottle and/or nursing sessions, weight gain, normal body temperature, lots of poopies, good BR levels and some alertness/activity during the day. Today was sort of a bad day, as he had several events, was very sleepy all day, did not bottle feed or nurse at all, had a low body temp most of the day and may have to go back into his "oven" for a while, and his BR levels were almost too high and he may have to receive some more phototherapy tonight. I would have to say, though, that his bad days still aren't that bad. He is a very healthy preemie... but still a preemie.

The best days for me are when he is awake and alert while I am there to see him. I love to watch him looking around taking in all his surroundings. This video was from a couple of days ago on a "good" day.


They are dressing him now while keeping him out of his incubator to see how well he can maintain his body temperature. He usually does really well and can keep it up all day. And the fatter he gets, the easier it will be. I am loving the outfits especially - they are SO small!