Sunday, Feb. 3rd Update

Well, just a quick update for Sunday. We spent significant time in Zac's room today and tonight. Last night they put him back on the c-pap (sp?), which is essentially just a bigger breathing tube, to help make sure he's getting enough oxygen. The percentage they are giving him is fairly low, less than 25% oxygen. To compare, the air we breathe is 21%. He had some episodes of labored breathing overnight last night and a few bouts of apnea. As I'm sure everyone knows, apnea is when you essentially quit breathing for a short period of time. We're most familiar with it in people who we say have sleep apnea. No difference here with Zac. At this age, he shouldn't have had to be ready to tell himself to breathe just yet, and so it'll just take a little while for his mind to figure it out. So occasionally he'll take a deep breath and then just wait a few seconds before taking another. While for us that's no big deal, for him it's not what they want.

To aid in figuring this out, they began today giving him a daily dose of caffeine. That's right, caffeine. This stimulates him so that he'll be a bit more active and also helps keep his mind alert so he remembers to breathe, so they tell us. They'll keep him on this with a once daily regimen for at least a few days here. Other than that, he is doing very well overall. He has a little bit of jaundice and so is under the lights and has been since Saturday. Won't be too long before he can remove his cool purple foam shades. :)

Just about everything else is pretty normal, and he is certainly alert and active, moving his arms and legs often. Might sound like something simple, but Katy and I think it's pretty funny when he'll just suddenly kick his legs up in the air. Saturday, while Katy was holding him (something we couldn't do today), he followed us around with his eyes, and was watching many things. Tonight I was able to assist the nurse while she changed out his medicines and nutrition tubes, and with weighing him as well. While I was holding him and then lifting him up so she could move things around, he watched me very intently. It's nice to know that, even at this very young age, and even as premature as he was, he still is aware of his surroundings to the point where he can follow what is happening. He's one tough cookie, but I'm just glad he's too young to remember all these tubes and poking and prodding years from now. :)