Our Relaxed, Pink, Happy Baby

Aaaah...I love these pictures.  James' cousin Shauna is an amazing photographer.  She is so sweet for coming to the NICU to capture Joshua in all his tiny cuteness.  On the first picture, if you look closely, you can tell Joshua is smiling with his eyes.  Hee hee.  That one just melted my heart when I saw it, and it brought tears to my eyes.  The second picture captures his little fingers so perfectly.  I love it!  Thankfully, his hand grabs the full attention of the picture because I realize now I should have gotten a manicure before these pictures.  But then again, my jagged, chewed up hangnails perfectly capture our nail biting experience.  :)   

LET'S HEAR IT FOR SHAUNA BETH PHOTOGRAPHY!  YAY!

Joshua is looking so incredible today.  Oh boy, that blood transfusion and extra oxygen made a world of difference in how he looks and acts.  After seeing him struggling to breathe yesterday, it's such a relief to see him today all relaxed and content...and pink!  He was so pale before.  He had a great day.  The blood cultures are negative so far, and the medical team is more and more convinced his diagnosis is a viral pneumonia.  Not a lot to do for treatment of that except give a little help with the oxygen.  If the cultures are negative tomorrow, they plan to stop the antibiotics once it has been 48 hours.  A mild annoyance is that he is in isolation, so anyone who enters his room has to wear a gown, mask, and gloves, including us.  I can't complain, though, because I know if Joshua's neighbor had a viral infection, I'd want them all to be gowned and gloved, too.  Those babies are all so fragile. 

Tonight, Joshua weighed in at 1615 grams or 3 lbs 9 oz.  That's a huge gain, up 60 grams from last night.  Granted, the weight last night was taken after a 45 g poop, and he hasn't had one today, so that may explain a little of the weight difference.  But we don't need to overanalyze it.  OverANALize it.  Get it?  I am SO cracking myself up right now!  Sorry, Mom.  Being under stress and sleep deprived, I'm not in my right mind, so I can't be held responsible for my potty humor. 

I just realized Joshua weighs the same now as his cousin Callie when she was born over 16 years ago nearly full term with trisomy 18.  Callie was such a little thing, and now she's so big.  When I was pregnant, one of my goals was to try to "beat" Callie's birth weight.  We were 3.5 weeks short on that goal, but I still consider it a small milestone.