Your prayers are working!

Wow, what a day!

I got a call this morning from Kale's nurse, Jodi. My heart just about stopped as this is the first time we've received a call from the NICU. Thankfully, she had good news! She said that the Dr. wanted to switch Kale to a new ventilator. This would take him off the high frequency vent that he has been on since birth. The vent he was on gave him 900 breaths per minute and they are shorter, shallower breaths, simply to keep the lungs inflated and provide steady oxygen. The new vent is referred to as the Draggar vent or the Baby Log. This vent will give him anywhere from 30-60 breaths per minute, and they are more like breaths that you and I take. Kale has the ability to breathe over the vent as well, and when he does this, the vent will help give him a push to complete the breath fully. The vent was set at 30 breaths per minute, and Kale was reading about 40-45 which means he is trying to take 10-15 breaths over what the vent is providing. They had a very busy morning and afternoon watching his blood gases closely to monitor the vent, and took another lung x-ray. The Drs. said that we shouldn't be surprised at all if he goes back on the high frequency vent, as it's pretty common for them to flip back and forth a few times. Either way, we're excited he got off this vent, because once he is a bit more stable this vent allows us to HOLD HIM!!!! The tubing is flexible and this allows us to do the Kangaroo care with him (skin to skin contact). We are soooo ready to hold our little guy, Derc and I never imagined that we would have to wait 20 days or so before we would be able to give our little man a kiss or hold him.....that will be a fantastic day!


Kale also increased his feedings today, he is up to 3 mls every 3 hours, he's just sucking that food down now. His Drs. are happy with the fact that his feedings are moving along nicely, and will continue to increase them as he tolerates it. His weight dropped today, back down to 1 lb. 10 oz. He just can't seem to stray too far from his birth weight.

Kale's infection results came back negative today as well, so he has kicked his first infection!! The Drs. stopped the antibiotics, so they feel confident that he has fought it off.

We did receive word on his brain scan, and it is the same as it was last week. So, still a stage II on his left side, and a zero on his right side. Derc and I were hoping that his results either stayed the same or improved, so we are just happy that it didn't get worse! We will hear more from the Dr. tomorrow on when they will repeat another scan.

We had a visit today from Pastor Perry, and he had some nice words of encouragement. We are so thankful for all of you keeping Kale, Derc and I in your prayers, we truly feel that your prayers are working as Kale had a few great things happen today! Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts, we appreciate it!