Wall of Hope

When my water first broke, and we went up to Yale at 15 weeks, I remember seeing the Wall of Hope.  I remember looking for the babies who were born the earliest, hoping that our boys would at least reach that age.  I remember thinking, why do they have so many babies close to full term on this wall?  Surely their issues aren't as great as those of the preemies or micro preemies.  At this point in our journey I have come to realize that these babies have just as, if not a more difficult journey than some of the preemies.  I have seen babies born at 3 pounds without respiratory support, who seem to fly through the NICU.  I have seen babies born at full term, 8 lbs, who are still in room 4.  In fact I saw Matthew's old neighbor today, Nathan, still in his same spot.  He is by far the biggest baby in all of the rooms.  His parents were there visiting as they have been for months now.

The Good

Matthew had a stable day and did well with his bottles.  He was part of a photo shoot this morning and hopefully we shall get copies of those pics.  I think they are going to use his photo for the NICU webpage, so that should be exciting.  He is already quite the celebrity.  At the weigh in last night he was almost 5lbs 14 oz!  He is doing well off the respiratory support!


The Bad

Matthew had his next eye exam today.  He still has stage 1 ROP, which is the bad, but the good part of that is that this has not progressed.


The Ugly

No Ugly today for Matthew - fingers crossed it stays that way