Happy Fathers Day, Derc!

Stinky............oh well, if that's his biggest problem, we'll take it!

If you've ever eaten at Chipotle, or Pablos in Cedar Falls, Kale isn't much bigger than one of their burritos when he's all swaddled. I know, that's a terrible comparison.....but it's true :(

Happy Fathers Day, Derc!!!!! Now if they would just let Mack upstairs to the NICU we would have a family pic with the whole family :)

Sooo peaceful!

That's one proud papa!

So, as you can see, Kale made it to the new vent today!! WAHOO!!! He went on the vent around 10:30am and has had 3 gases since going on it. They have looked progressively better throughout the day, so he won't have another gas until tomorrow morning. We're REALLY hoping that he can stay on this one for a while. We just talked with Jodi and she said he's been a little higher on his oxygen tonight, up to about 50% when he was around 30% all day. She put him back on his tummy for the rest of the night since he seems to do better when he's on his belly. Needless to say, we were very happy that Derc finally got to hold Kale! He has been waiting patiently and he finally got his turn. Kale looked nice and comfy in his Dad's arms, it was great to see Derc holding him...I can just imagine the two of them sitting together watching football this fall in the comfort of our own home! And, of course, we'll have Mack on our laps too :) Once Derc was done holding him I got to slide in and hold him again for a bit, it was a fabulous feeling yet again.

Anyway, we got to speak with the Dr. today and she said that the general goal is to get babies off the vent by 32 weeks...so that means Kale has about 2 weeks to get his lungs nice and strong and ready to breathe on his own - likely with the help of some other therapies, but at least he won't be intubated!

The other thing we learned today is that Kale's diapers are REALLY starting to smell. I mean bad. Derc and I walked into his room today and wondered what the smell was...Jodi informed us it was our son, haha! We feel so bad - he's on fortified formula so his diapers are really rough, and the poor kid is stuck inside an enclosed incubator so I don't know how he breathes in there...no wonder he gets cranky sometimes! Later in the afternoon I noticed that there was some air freshener in the room, and I asked Jodi if she brought it in. She said no...which is just great because that means the lady who cleans the room must really think he smells too! Oh well, we should get used to that I guess...can we say Diaper Geenie?!

Tonight was the start of a fun weekend for us. Derc's brother is getting married in August, and I went to a shower for his fiance, Laura, tonight. It was fun (even though I was super late - sorry again Laura!) and was a good practice run for their bachelor/bachelorette parties this weekend. Tomorrow I have a good friend coming in town and we're going to meet up for dinner with some other friends! Then, Sunday Derc will be able to celebrate his first official Fathers Day!

Well, thanks for checking in, we know we had a lot of people rooting for Kale that he would get on the other vent today, and he did so THANK YOU!! We're hoping that he has a good night and can stay on it tomorrow!