A Breathe's Worth...

Soooo, again, I apologize for being a bad updater! It's so sweet though, because the phone calls and text messages start coming more often, and I realize how many people have been keeping up with lil Jackson! Also, for those of you who have sent comments and emails, I am printing them off and saving them for him to read when he is older, so thank you!

Wow, so, a lot has happened over the past few days! The most important being that Friday evening, Jackson decided he had had enough, and pulled his breathing tube out (this isn't the first time) but the doctor's and respiratory therapist decided to leave it out...Jackson is now breathing on his own! His ventilator rate that day was down to a 10, so he was doing really well anyway.

A couple of hours after this, Marc, Colby, Ryan Johnston, and I were visiting him and he had an apnea spell, and it was pretty scary. His heart rate dropped to 30 and he was turning blue, the whole thing. They had to "bag" him with an oxygen mask and put air into him, and the made us take Colby out...the whole thing didn't last longer than 5 minutes, but it was pretty hectic. Anyway, they told us it's pretty normal for babies that just came off the vent to have this. They are giving him caffeine 1 a day, which somehow helps with the apnea.

Now that he is off the ventilator, we can hold him pretty much whenever, it's up to the nurse now. And also Colby can hold him, so that will be cute. When he goes to visit, he always asks Marc and I if we can smell Jackson...and when we ask him why, he says because he smells so good! I asked him what he smelled like, and Colby said, "Himself.." LOL...so he will be really excited to hold him.

This morning we also found out that he can have his PIC Line taken out, which is also another BIG step...almost as big as coming off of the ventilator. They are doing this because the doctor feels like he is getting enough of the nutrition from his feedings (which are still through a tube) so they don't feel like they will have to use this anymore for anything. They are going to give him formula now, instead of the breast milk, because it is a higher calorie blend (even more than my fatty junk!) and they are also giving him some type of oil (I think) that will help him fatten up...like Crisco.

He's been wearing clothes too...it's really really cute! I have lots of pictures I'm putting up too later today.