Day 18 Update

BBN came off the nasal cannula this morning and seems to be doing great without it..which means he is breathing 100% on his own! We are very excited that he could move from RDS (respiratory distress syndrome - the medical term for all of the breathing difficulties BBN had early on) to breathing 100% on his own in 2 1/2 weeks! Although it has felt like a long time to us, it's really amazing that his little body could heal itself so quickly and now his lungs are able to handle breathing on their own.

He continues to be bottle fed and tube fed every other feeding. For the most part he is finishing most of his bottles, although he is slow and some feeds are better than others. For now the drs are going to leave him in his isolet so that he doesn't have to spend calories keeping his own body temperature and instead can focus on gaining weight and feeding. Once he improves with the feeding, they will move him to an open crib, which will be another important step toward coming home.

Thanks again for following his progress. It means so much to us when we hear how many people are following the blog. We hope to have more good news to report over the weekend and hope BBN will be home soon!