Weekend Update

We had a good weekend. My Mama and sister, Anna Leigh, came up for the weekend to help us out for a couple days. It was wonderful to have them here. We had a fun time simply being together, and traveling back and forth to the hospital to see Christopher. Mama cooked and cleaned the whole weekend, which was a tremendous help. Thanks, Mama!

Christopher continues to do extremely well. His feedings are up to 26mL every three hours, and he is tolerating them well. He now weighs 2 lb. 12.6 oz!!! Dr. Gundy said that if he continues tolerating them, he’ll try to start him on bottle feedings in about a week. So please add that to your prayer list – that’d be one step closer to bringing him home.

It was wonderful to be able to hold Christopher quite a bit this weekend. We’ve decided that bundled in a blanket is still nice, but the Kangaroo Care is more fun because you can actually feel his little body wiggling into a ball and snuggling close as he falls asleep. It’s fun to sing to him and share with him about our days. Until he falls asleep, he focuses quite intently on our faces during those special times.

The Zantac Christopher is receiving every day continues to help with his spells of not breathing and dropping his heart rate, though they haven’t been eliminated completely. I discovered on Friday night that it’s the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life when my baby boy was grabbed out of my hands by one nurse as another reached for oxygen because he wasn’t breathing and his face was turning blue. Talk about scary - even knowing that’s ‘normal’ for preterm infants isn’t very comforting in the moment. But the nurses were wonderful, and Christopher was able to ‘recover himself’ without any oxygen, so that was good. I’ll be happy when he outgrows this ‘stage,’ that way Daddy and Mommy’s hearts can quit stopping too!

Thanks again for all your prayers. We feel them every day and couldn’t do this without the love and support you all are giving us.

~Rachel

Grandma Tolan holds Christopher for the first time.
(She had a cold last week, and though felt better - decided to wear a mask 'just in case.')






















Daddy's first experience with Kangaroo Care. Both boys enjoyed it (except for the point when Christopher really pinched his Daddy's nipple - look out guys - seems like he'll be good at PTA).
Christopher even turned his head the other way so he could look up at Daddy's face when he was talking to him.



















Christopher Steven - our little miracle.
(and for those of you who've been asking, we're calling him Christopher.)

















Christopher practicing with his pacifier. Unfortunately, he's getting spoiled by tube feedings - it only takes a few mL's before he enters his carb-coma. We'll have to break that habit once he switches to eating by mouth.