June 24 Update

Well, Carrick had a big day today. When we went to visit him this morning, one of the physical therapists came in and taught us how to give him a baby massage. It's basically rubbing slow circles on him using a light pressure that a grown-up probably wouldn't even notice. Carrick seems to really love it, though. He sucked on his pacifier real hard while she was massaging his legs and she said that is sign that he is happy and calm. So that's great. He moved up to 8.5 ccs on his feeding and he's doing well with that. Still on a CPAP pressure of 5 and holding. This evening, we arrived right before the nurse was going to give him a bath. So we got to bathe him for the first time ever! We also saw him naked without any stickers attached to him. He had bright red circles where they were, though. To give him a bath, they actually take him out and sit him in a basin of warm water, under a heat lamp. He was not happy at all about being naked, or about the water. But the nurse said babies usually like baths. Then she put a shirt on him that is newborn baby sized. It fit him like a dress and went down to his ankles. She also put some preemie socks on him but they looked two sizes too big! We took pictures. After his bath, Will held him for a little while. At first he was very alert. He could not stop staring at Will's face! Then he fell asleep but his oxygen levels kept falling down and not coming back up. We figured he had just had enough stimulation and was over it. And sure enough, when we put him back in his isolette, his stats came back up and he calmed down. He was just letting us know when it was too much. He's still very young and it's difficult for his brain to process more than one source of stimulation at a time. For example, when we hold him we don't do too much talking. When his eyes are open and he's trying to focus on our faces, we try to hold still. When we read to him, we don't really touch him. This helps his brain develop but keeps him from being over stressed. We are so grateful to God for the way the last month has gone. He is a very good God. He gave us an amazing son! Thank you for continuing to pray.