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Monday, May 7, 2007

Miller's 2 weeks old today! And, in celebration, he got a new isolette (crib). He's been in a Giraffe, a super high tech, self humidifying, robotic contraption with all of the bells and whistles. Now, he's in what looks to be a 1982 model Ohmeda. It's like when you go to the airport and walk down the jetway. Sometimes you end up in that brand new 737 with clean leather seats and the drop down TVs. And sometimes you walk on to that creaky, yellowing Airbus 300.
The nurses assured us that that old Ohmeda was up to the task.

Miller's a hungry boy. He's up to 11 cc's of momma's milk every three hours. He seems to tolerating it pretty well. The nurses have increased his oxygenation percentage (on average) over the last couple of days. Previously, he was at 21% (room air). He's up a little bit (30%-40%), probably due to the increased amount of food in his stomach. They're giving him a little more time on the CPAP and he seems to be responding well.

The NICU is full of bells and dings. Anytime one of the babies experiences a desaturation (drop in blood oxygen level) or a drop in heart rate, a little bell goes off. As you might imagine de-sats and hr drops are very common in the NICU, so at times it can sound like Christmas. The machines that monitor these things and make those sounds also have big green and red numbers. We're usually sitting with Miller for an hour and a half at a time and it's hard not to lock on to those numbers. Our stress level rises and falls in direct correlation to those numbers. By the end of the day, we're pretty much spent.

Thanks to his Aunt Michelle and Uncle JP, Miller got a new book. The Little Engine That Could will be a permanent part of Miller's daily routine. In fact, it was the inspiration for the awesome t-shirt Uncle JP designed for Miller Lee's WalkAmerica team.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) brings another cranial ultrasound to determine our next step w/ Miller's IVH. We are praying hard & praying often. We know that all of you are doing the same, and we are so grateful for it. As usual, we are keeping ourselves distracted by flipping b/w HGTV & The Food Network until we can't keep our eyes open...

Love to you all-

Danny & Stephanie

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