Michael continues to improve steadily; his breathing is continuing to stabilize and he is requiring smaller amounts of oxygen to do well. He has been rather feisty and has yanked out his gavage tube a couple of times and is always grabbing at the various tubes and pieces of tape stuck to him. But this is actually good news because it means that his body has some energy for activities other than breathing.

Feeding has been going well and he is tolerating milk; while he takes his food through a tube I put his binky in his mouth so he can suck on it and associate a full belly with the motion of sucking. This afternoon we are going to try nursing and see how it goes.

Right now I can still only hold him about once a day but if he does fine with nursing and his breathing continues to improve he will be able to come out of the incubator more often. Sydney and Isaac will get to see him for the first time today; albeit through the NICU window, but they are pretty excited to see their baby brother!

Jaundice has crept in so he is laying under the bili-lites with some sunglasses on his face; just chillin’ in a tanning booth.

Mom and dad are doing well. Sydney and Isaac were spoiled by our friends that watched them for a couple of days. We have a wave of meals coming in this next week and several friends and neighbors wanting to know how they can help. Right now we feel very blessed to know that others are keeping us in their prayers and to know that we have many friends that we can call in a pinch.