The Hanna Family

Tuesday

"The smallest children are nearest to God, as the smallest planets are nearest the sun." Jean Paul Richter

Both boys had ok days today. Jonah's blood pressure and oxygen fluctuated quite a bit today as he was "shunting" off and on, meaning his open PDA valve in his heart is preventing adequate blood from getting to his lungs. A couple of times they had the respiratory therapist watching him carefully trying to adjust his settings. It is a hard thing to see as a mother but as one nurse explained it tonight this is very typical of premies, especially ones as small as Jonah. She said, "Don't let it upset you to see this happening..."

Noah did ok today. They repositioned him around noon when we went in to the NICU and he did ok but later that afternoon his heart rate shot up because one of the nurses was giving him some medication and he didn't tolerate being touched very well. At one point they had his oxygen down to 58% but once his heart rate changed so drastically they set his oxygen back up to 75%. It would be wonderful if they could get him back down to 58%, anything below that 60 mark and they can start decreasing the other settings of his ventilator which decreases his risk for the air bubbles that can damage his lungs.

All in all, they both had fairly good days. Jonah's head did increase again by 1/4 a centimeter, every day I keep hoping we'll see that it has reversed itself and I have to keep hoping. Even if it doesn't work out in the end at least I can say I prayed for a miracle every step of the way.

We had another tender moment with little Noah again tonight, toward the end of our nightly stay he opened his eyes and interacted with us. We were able to reach in to his incubator and touch him and he opened his eyes and did very well with us caressing him. His nurse even commented how well he did with our attention. He has the sweetest expressions, those tiny little eyes and nose...he looks up at us so fervently. He loves and knows his Mom and Dad.

Poor Jonah, tonight the nurse had to change his diaper, position him on his side and check his vitals and he absolutely did not like it at all. She gave him a bit of sedation because she said she had noticed he was not tolerating the noises of the NICU well. Sometimes they are able to keep lights low as well as the noise level and obviously other times it is very busy. Neither of the boys tolerate it very well but Jonah especially has a hard time with a lot of noise and light.

So tomorrow is another day, we pray it will be a good one. Every bit of progress the babies make is a huge step of success in the right direction. Thank you for your prayers, we are cautiously optimistic that Noah's lungs will make it through this yet and we still hope for the best for our little Jonah.

Love, Shane and Michelle