Day Nine Update

Kerry got to hold Baby Boy Newman today! It was very exciting, although she could only hold him for five minutes because his oxygen level started dropping. She is trying not to take this personally since apparently this is very normal for NICU babies. (We never experienced this with Ilan since we were able to hold him from day one). Since they are not used to being held, they have to get used to the sensation and it takes their bodies a little while to adjust. Apparently each day we can hold him a bit longer and he should adjust sooner rather than later.

In other good news, they have started to feed Baby Boy Newman again and so far he seems to be tolerating 5mg of milk every three hours. He digested his 8am and 11am feeds and hopefully will continue to do well throughout the day. If so, they will give him 10mg tomorrow and keep increasing the amounts slowly. Right now he is being fed through a feeding tube that goes into his mouth and down into his stomach. They won't start feeding by mouth until he is off the CPAP since it will be too difficult for him to eat and breath at the same time.

The CPAP is down to "room air" on the oxygen level which means that he is breathing the same air that we all do - with no extra oxygen. Now he is just getting pressure from the CPAP that helps keep his lungs open.

Kerry also got the pleasure of changing Baby Boy Newman's diaper today. Sounds very ordinary but when you haven't been able to have so much contact with your baby it's the little things like that, that make you start to feel like you are the child's parent.

We are getting there slowly but surely. We are excited that each day brings improvement and looking forward to seeing our little guy grow stronger every day.