May 21 Update

Tomorrow Carrick will be 4 weeks old, and then on the 24th he'll be a whole month old! A lot of people ask us, "Is Carrick making progress?" I want to say yes, but then I'm not sure if he's progressing the way we think of progress. He has made improvements, but also stepped back after some of those. He's gotten a little bigger, but his weight still fluctuates with the amount of fluid in him--it's kind of like water weight. He was on the CPAP for almost a week, which is great! But now he's back on the ventilator. The bleeding in his brain is still the same, which is another good thing, but that's still not supposed to happen at all. They expect it, but a full-term baby wouldn't have it. They can measure his blood pressure with the cuff instead of the aterial line now, which frees up a limb some of the time. His hair is longer. Both his eyes are open. His kidneys still work great, and he's digesting the small amount of milk they give him (not right now though because of the PDA medicine). But they have to keep the amount so small because a larger amount would wreck his intestines. He was stable enough for Jenni to hold him for half-an-hour, but then the infection hit and all that stability was lost. He is better now than when he was born, but he's still completely dependent on the NICU. He wouldn't make it if he came home now. This last round of PDA medicine didn't work, which is common, so Carrick will have surgery to close it early next week some time. They'll give us a more definite date later this week. His PDA opening back up was one of the reasons he had to go back on the ventilator. This is a surgery they do often so the doctors are confident. So Carrick's surgery tally is up to 2--his PDA next week and the hernia surgery right before of after he comes home. Our little guy with grow up with mystery scars; where did these scars come from daddy? He still keeps biting down on the breathing tube, also. God has told both Jenni and I that this path will be difficult. Thank you for praying. One day we'll be able to tell Carrick how many people God used to bless him. More to come.