Day 18 & 19 (May 16 and 17)

Day 18
Didn't get a chance to write yesterday - morning play with Sadie then afternoon/evening visit with Ryan.  He's been "swinging" a lot more lately, and his oxygen requirement is still on the higher side. I'm going to ask Nancy more about that today. We haven't had her for more than a week now. 
We had a chat with the doctor last night (I've realized that talking to her at Ryan's bedside helps me cry a little less when she tells us scary sounding things).  She said that his PDA (the duct) is still open and we won't be able to treat with indomethecyn anymore so either we wait for it to close on it's own (since it's not doing any harm to him right now) or if it starts causing other bad things to happen, he may need surgery to close it.  Obviously we'd like the first option.  Other scary sounding news is that his ventricles in his brain have been swelling a bit lately.  A common occurrence, but one that needs to be watched carefully, so weekly head ultrasounds are on the menu to make sure there isn't too much pressure.  There's nothing great about swelling in the brain, but the doctor said that in babies, their soft spot on their head helps to relieve the pressure - if an adult has swelling, they need to intervene much sooner. 

Day19
Ventured out into the 'real world' today and went to Sadie's gymnastics class.  It pleasantly easy.  She was super silly and wasn't the best listener, but it was nice to see her having fun and see how much she's improved over the last few weeks.
Had a nice visit with Ryan too.  Nancy changed his isolette, so I got to hold him while they did it.  We needed a respiratory therapist to 'bag him' (that's pretty much what it sounds like -  the RT squeezed air into his ventilation tube using a bag, while I held him.  He handled it very well and didn't DSAT during his time out of his bed.  I offered just to sit there all day with him, but the RT's hands might get tired from all the squeezing.  Scott chatted with one of the doctors, and they basically said that Ryan is 'static'.  He's not making any major gains, but he's not having any major setbacks.  I'm ok with that.  Sure, we'd like to see him not needing so much oxygen, swinging less, etc. but he also needs time to grow in order to do that.  His feeds are going well, so soon he'll be on 'full feeds' which will be supplemented with some sodium and another source of protein.  Hopefully that goes well, and soon he'll be a member of the "Kilo club".  Today his weight was 880 g. Which is just shy of 2 lbs.  To think that when we see him, we say, "wow, he looks big."... perspective is a funny thing.  We heard that there was a new baby admitted today that weighed 560 g.  Fingers crossed for that little one. 
Pictures of Ryan's 'outing' to come over the weekend. 
Enjoy the long weekend :-)