Running Low on Oxygen

My boy has made me so proud, but I’ll get to that later. Last Thursday he had another development review with a physical therapist to evaluate him as a 5 month old. He did very well. He can’t sit on his own yet, but he sits well for his age. He puts everything he can into his mouth – usually with two hands. He dealt well with the therapist and didn’t fuss. He has good muscle tone too. Due to the prematurity, they will probably still monitor his development, but he is doing well for his adjusted age.

Jordan did something yesterday that he has never done before. He willingly drank water! Usually we give him a bottle of water and he sucks too hard. Imagine you suck on a straw hard enough to get a milkshake and all you get is a mouth full of water. When that happened in the past he choked a little. However, yesterday he did it right and was able to tolerate the water. He has also started to try and put in his own pacifier. There is nothing cuter than handing him his pacifier and watch what he does with it. He can’t get it in his mouth oriented properly, but he tries so hard. I’ll post a video of it really soon.

Anyway, we need to do a little review. Your blood can hold a certain amount of oxygen. For most of us we have about 95% or more of the maximum amount. Jordan was born so early that his lungs were damaged and when he came home from the hospital he couldn’t stay that high unless we gave him extra oxygen. On Thursday night we let him sleep for the first time (intentionally) without oxygen and he never got below 95% as far as we could see. The results of this test should be getting to the doctor this week. If we are lucky, the doctor will say we no longer need to use any oxygen at all! Worst case scenario, we will have to wait until the May 7th appointment to be released from the gas. We are almost done with the oxygen, but we are still using it at night now until we get clearance from the doctor. Then pretty soon after that we can get rid of the damn monitor. I couldn’t be prouder of how far he has come.