April 28

We had a nice long visit with Miller Lee tonight. His breathing is progressing very well. He's alternating CPAP and Cannula in 4 hour intervals and his rare apnea episodes have almost disappeared.

We learned a couple of interesting things today...Miller's blood type is O negative, which is very rare. His mom is O positive and his dad is AB negative. The interesting thing is that his namesake ( His Great Grampa Lee ) was also O negative. In fact, since Miller's been in the NICU, we've felt his Great Grampa's presence all around us.

We also reviewed his APGAR scores for the first time. From what we understand, APGAR is a test administered to newborns to gauge their overall health at 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes (if necessary). Miller scored 3 on the 1 minute test, 6 on the 5 minute test, and 9 on the 10 minute test (At'a boy!!!).

The thing that still worries us though is the grade 4 IVH. We've talked to a couple of the Nurse Practitioners and a Neonatologist. The popular opinion seems to be that the IVH puts him at an increased risk of developmental problems associated with hearing, sight, speech, motor skills and, in rare cases, cerebral palsy. Of course, we are very concerned about all of these issues and we hope and pray that Miller's health isn't severly impacted by any of them.

The good news is that he's exceeding everyone's expectations for his breathing. There will be bumps in the road ahead, but he's really doing exceptionally well in that area. His movements are normal and he kicked ass on his Apgar. He's digesting the colostrum just fine and all of his vitals are on the very high end of the scale.

We continue to focus on the positives. Yes, we're worried about all of the other stuff but all we can do is support him with as much love and encouragement as we can.

Thanks for all of you thoughts and prayers.

Love, Danny and Stephanie

PS - Katrina's King Ranch Chicken is Awesome!!!