Face-to-face with Roscoe

Last night Alisha fed Roscoe his bottle. After some initial resistance he gulped down 5mL again, which is great because it shows that he's learning to eat and breathe at the same time. After Alisha fed Roscoe, she was holding him and the nurse asked if we'd like to get a look at his face. She thought he'd do well enough being off the oxygen mask for a few seconds, enough time to take this video.

He's a cute kid! The strips of tape around his nose are to protect his skin from breaking down since he's constantly wearing the mask. We hope that as time progresses we'll be able to see more and more of this little face (hopefully with it looking fatter each day). We are praying that God will cause his development to progress quickly, but as we've learned so far from this journey God causes things to happen in his own time and in his own way.

Bottle Feeding

Yesterday Roscoe successfully fed 5mL from a bottle, which is a great step forward. His feedings are currently at 32mL (and increasing daily) so he's got a ways to go before they can remove his feeding tube. Once the feeding tube is gone, his only remaining major hurdles in the way of coming home will be his breathing and maintaining body temperature.

Roscoe's breathing remained mostly the same yesterday, which is good because it shows he can maintain his breathing rate on his own and doesn't need large gushes of air to get oxygen to his lungs. We hope that over the next few days he'll progress his breathing to the point that he can be taken off the ventilator.

I am hoping that Roscoe will better maintain body temperature a little better as he adds weight. Yesterday Roscoe tipped the scales at 3lb 8.5oz, so he is officially 3.5lbs! It seems like such a short time ago that we were wondering if he'd ever get out of the "just over 1 pound" area. The end of Roscoe's hospital stay is starting to come into view, and it's a wonderful sight. Please continue your prayers for God to remove any remaining roadblocks and keep Roscoe comforted.

Last night when I was holding him, his eyes were very alert. This was the result:

Ventilator Progress

Roscoe made great progress on his ventilator yesterday. On Monday when we saw him he was around 38% oxygen on a ventilator that pushed air into his lungs on a periodic basis. Yesterday, he changed ventilators to a "bubble c-pap", which gives a lower amount of constant pressure and he got down to 30% oxygen on that machine. The next step will be a "nasal cannula", which is the oxygen tube that you see many old folks wear in a retirement home when they need supplemental oxygen. We are excited because he's one step closer to breathing room air on his own, but of course the progress can't come fast enough for us.

His next big hurdle will be eating from a bottle. He tried it for the first time yesterday, but didn't take to it so they stopped. He ate 1mL of food in 5 minutes through a bottle, when he is now being fed 32mL in 30 minutes through his feeding tube. Each day they'll try to get him to feed from a bottle, but the doctor said that they won't push it because they want to make it a good experience. If he has negative associations with eating from a bottle (or person) then it will keep him on the feeding tube longer and add more complications.

Here are 3 short videos that Alisha took yesterday while Roscoe was watching his mobile twirl and listening to the music:

I wonder if sometimes God looks down at us with joy and care like we look at Roscoe. I wonder if he puts things in our path/vision to give us joy or to distract us from the trials. Roscoe doesn't see his feeding tube, breathing mask, or various monitors; he just sees the excitement of something simple.

"... whoever touches you touches the apple of [God's] eye."
- Zechariah 2:8

Pictures of Roscoe

Alisha and I wanted to share something special on the blog today. It isn't a fun thing to have your baby be born 3 months early and stay in the NICU for 2+ months (and counting). However, there have been some benefits of going through this process that I feel blessed to have been able to experience. One of those things is the blessing of being able to see my son's hands, feet, and other features when they were unbelievably tiny. I feel blessed to have seen the power of God working in my son and growing him to the level of stability and size that he is today. Another blessing we've received came via the US Postal Service.

You've seen lots of pictures of Roscoe so far on this blog, but you haven't seen any like these. These are cards that were hand-painted watercolors by a friend of ours. He sent them to us with encouraging notes about Roscoe's growth and how God was working in him:

Since I am a technical/scientific person I saw Roscoe through my own eyes as an amazing work of God and a testament to God's power in creation. In other words, I saw Roscoe as he is, not as he was going to be. These cards helped me see Roscoe through someone else's eyes, to see the boy and man that Roscoe will one day become. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  

Held in our Arms

Alisha and I have been able to hold Roscoe again since he is using the face mask ventilator. It is still kind of frustrating (for us) because we can't rock him very much or shift around because if the angle of the face mask changes then air will leak out the sides. It's funny because when Roscoe gets tired his mouth will relax and the air will inflate his mouth like he is hissing at us:

We hold him as much as we can because he really seems to calm down and enjoy being held. That is a comfort and joy to us because we didn't know if he would have an aversion to human contact with all of the prodding and poking he's had in his life so far. On Sunday he turned 9 weeks old! Tomorrow he would have been 38-weeks gestationally. His latest measurements are 3lb 5oz (he dropped weight during the last two stressful days) and 14.5" long/tall.

I got to hold Roscoe on Saturday:

... and Alisha got to hold him on Sunday:

Holding Roscoe and taking care of him reminds us that God protects and cares for us:

"The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms ..."
Deuteronomy 33:27

"Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders"
Deuteronomy 33:12

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you"
1 Peter 5:7

Comparison with Daddy

Alisha and I went to visit Roscoe tonight and he was doing very well. His heart rate has historically averaged 170-180 and tonight it fluctuated in the 130-150 range (normal). With his breathing tube removed, he was also doing well using the face mask ventilator. His oxygen numbers were staying in the 93-98% range (normal) while he was supplied with air that was 38% oxygen and positive pressure. As Roscoe progresses, the hospital will gradually lessen the positive pressure until Roscoe is eventually breathing non-pressurized air. Once he reaches that point they'll wean him until he's breathing room air on his own. He is already breathing against the machine, so that's a positive sign.

Many of the nurses and visitors have said that Roscoe tends more to look like me, so here's a little video that we shot where I leaned down and got his face right up next to mine.

Kids, don't try this at home

Last night we visited Roscoe and saw him with his breathing tube out. He is still on breathing support, but is using an external mask only. Last night his oxygen requirements were up around 60%, but today when we went to visit him he was down to 38%. Right now the air is getting pushed into his lungs at a specified rate with a specified pressure. As he progresses in maturity, the nurses will slowly wean the amount of air pressure that Roscoe is receiving until there's no positive pressure to fill his lungs. At that point he'll just have higher-than-normal oxygen available, but he'll have to breathe it in all on his own.

Here is Roscoe with a setup that one of the nurses came up with to hold his pacifier in, because he's so fidgety and likes to pull on anything near his mouth. We've found that even though there's so much high-tech medical equipment available in the hospital, sometimes nurses still have to improvise to get the job done right. She warned us not to do this at home, but since he's on oxygen and heart rate monitors it was a safe way to pacify him during his hospital care:

He kept pushing out his pacifier, so the nurse used a nose sucker (mini turkey baster) to hold the pacifier in his mouth. Then she used a grippy heating pad to hold the nose sucker in place to keep it from scooting away from his mouth.