Day 26

This is the most "normal" I have yet to feel with Maksim. I was finally able to just hold him and look at him! It was such an amazing feeling. I actually started crying because I needed that feeling of normalcy so much. Look at how adorable he is with all of that blonde hair! I even took a video of him. It is kind of long, but I had to post it. It is hard to tell what he is doing at first; his head starts shaking, and if you listen closely, you can hear a little sneeze. It was a little bright, so he was having a hard time getting his eyes open, but you can get a few glimpses of his beautiful eyes!

Today Maks weighs 765 grams or 1 lb 11 oz. It is an improvement, but it feels like he should be gaining weight faster. He is up to 2ml every 3 hours, which is such a small amount. To put it into perspective, there are 5ml in one teaspoon, so he just isn't getting very much. He is still getting the TPN (artificial nutrition given through his veins), but we need to eventually get rid of that. The nurse told me that in order to get rid of the TPN, Maks would have to be getting 14ml for each feeding! We sure have a long ways to go. Please pray that his digestive tract will start tolerating the feedings well. The doctor said his intolerance is likely due to his "rough start to life." When a body has so much stress at first, as Maks' did, with having to be resuscitated for so long, blood is shunted to vital organs like the heart and the brain. Unfortunately, blood goes away from the gut to support those organs, kind of shuts down, and sometimes even begins to atrophy. His little gut just needs time to rejuvenate.

On a more positive note, he is down a little on his oxygen/CPAP settings, and he did well when I got to hold him today. He also had a bowel movement today, which we are hoping is a good sign that he is tolerating the breast milk! Regardless of being small, he looks bigger and stronger every day! Thanks for all of the prayers. Please keep them coming in Maks' behalf!

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