Update for Wednesday- Dan and I got to hold him!

Today the primary neonatologist's comments during rounds were much more encouraging to us than previous days. He said that today he was less worried about Ryan than he was yesterday, and that yesterday he was less worried than the previous day, so basically Ryan is showing signs of going in the right direction but is not yet "out of the woods" when it comes to the risks of persisent pulmonary hypertension. Since he has been tolerating feedings well, they increased the amount of breastmilk that he'll be receiving during each feeding through his nasal-gastric tube. They felt comfortable enough with his respiration rate and oxygen saturation level that they decided to begin weaning him off of oxygen slowly with the goal to at least transition him from his hood to a nasal cannula at a low oxygen percentage by the end of the day. He started out at about 60% oxygen in his hood, and when he got down to 40% successfully, they transitioned him to a nasal cannula. He currently still has the nasal cannula and is at about 35% oxygen. It is still important to limit stimulation, so it was really unfortunate when the IV in Ryan's scalp went bad this evening. It has lasted longer than anyone had anticipated, but losing it happened at a bad time (would have been better to try to get a new IV started if he were already down to being on room air and the amount of stimulation he received were not as important). It took awhile to remove the tape that had held his scalp IV (it was stuck in his hair, poor little guy!), and then took another 45 minutes to find a good vein and to successfully get another IV started. So that was a LOT of stimulation for him, but fortunately his stats remained good. He is not receiving any meds via IV anymore (the antibiotics were stopped yesterday when the bacterial cultures returned negative), but he does still require an IV to keep up his fluid level and to receive additional nutrition (proteins, fats, etc). After his IV was placed, Dan and I both got to hold him for a short time which was awesome! We could get close enough to him so that he could see us with his limited newborn vision, and it was so sweet to see how he just stared and stared at us totally wide-eyed. Since he had so much stimulation this evening, his oxygen weaning will be slowed down even further so as not to over-stress him. I'm not sure when he'll be down to room air, but the nurse who is caring for him tonight said that he's not "in the clear" until he's been on room air for 24-36 hours and maintained his stats. Apparently up until that point there is a real danger that a stressor could cause him to relapse into a hypertensive state. Thanks so much again for all of your prayers! We appreciate them and can see them being answered as we continue to take baby steps toward Ryan being completely healthy and permitted to come home.