Tessa meets her little brother!!

This morning Derek, Tessa, and I got up early and spent a few hours with just the three of us. After a short while (very short while) the anxiety of not being at the hospital hit! The three of us headed to the hospital this morning so Tessa could meet her little brother. She's at the perfect age where the tubes, wires, and everything else that comes along with Nolan getting better doesn't really phase her. Her response to him was so cute. She couldn't stop smiling and wanted to get closer and closer to him. He is still in his isolette so we can't get nearly as close as we would like to. We opened up the little side window where we can stick our hands in and she reached right in to tickle his cute, little toes. At one point she turned around to us with a smile on her face and said "I love him". My heart melted! She's going to be a great big sister. Now all we need is for baby Nolan to come home!!

We made it early enough to the hospital that I was able to sit in for Nolan's rounds. All of the doctors and nurses are so nice and really do make the situation of being there much more comfortable. Overall, Nolan had a good night and good morning today. He hadn't had any apnea spells since midnight (YEAH!!) and his O2 level was lowered to 32 (we want it to get to 21 and yesterday it was as high as 57). They seemed optimistic that he is starting to produce his own surfactant which is all we've been praying for these last few days. When his body starts to produce this his lungs and breathing should improve and sometimes it can improve very quickly. They also did an x-ray of his lungs this morning and the results showed an improvement!! That is what we have been hoping for! His bilirubin levels still show a small bit of jaundice so he'll be hanging out with his sunglasses on for at least 24 more hours. He is also going to get some food today for the first time. He'll be getting this through a feeding tube rather than through a bottle. They would like his breathing to be a bit more consistent before trying the bottle. Poor guy is hungry! He's been getting nutrients through an IV but today he'll get the good stuff! We've also been told that when he starts to eat that he may become less and less jaundice. We keep praying that things will keep improving for our little guy. He's lost 9% of his birth weight but hopefully after he begins eating he'll grow and grow and grow. Derek and I are going back in tonight. We are really anxious to hear how his first feedings went today.

Many people have asked about posting or sending photos. We are going to wait just a bit longer before posting any. With everything that he currently has on his face you can't really see him. So we'll wait until his CPAP is removed so you can see how cute he really is (I suppose that I could be a bit bias...). Him having his CPAP removed will be a huge step in the right direction! I can't wait for that time to come!