Posted Mar 1, 2007 10:17am

18 days old!
638 grams

Ryan had a pretty good day yesterday. He did have several "episodes" where his heart rate and oxygen saturation dropped. They gave him a blood transfusion (10ml) yesterday morning, and he did much better after receiving it. He had less "episodes" and his color pinked-up. We sure will be glad when these "episodes" are no more. It gets pretty scary when you see his oxygen drop down into the 40's and his heart rate drop below 100. They haven't made any changes on his ventilator settings although he is requiring more oxygen to keep his O2 sats between 83-93. Yesterday he needed 50-60% all day, and this morning he is still at 54% oxygen. It was just a day or so ago when 30-40% was all he was needing. They are now feeding him 2.6 ml every 3 hours and he has been tolerating the feedings well. His digestive/intestinal system is still working well. I actually got to change a poopie diaper a couple of days ago. Ryan had another brain ultrasound looking for bleeding in the brain this morning. We probably won't know the results until tonight or tomorrow morning.

Prayers and Praises:
We thank God for his everlasting presence. Even when we feel alone we know He is near. We thank you for all your prayers. We have been truly blessed. We are thankful that Ryan has had no major setbacks. For being as small and early as he was when he entered this world he has been spared many problems and is doing quite well by God's grace alone. Sometimes I find myself in an emotional whirlwind simply because my son is doing quite well while other babies in the NICU are not. The only thing I know to do is to give thanks to God for blessing us so tremendously through all of this and to pray fervently for the other babies and families who are suffering. (So many things just don't make sense.) Please continue to pray for Ryan as you feel lead. Pray that he will begin to need less oxygen. Pray that these "episodes" will be a thing of the past and that he will suffer no lasting harm from them. Pray that his brain scan results are clear of any brain bleeds. Please pray especially for Taylor. Taylor's kidneys need to start working. She hasn't been able to pee for over 3 days now, and things have been very tough for this sweet family.