Merry Christmas!

It was a very blessed Christmas this year as we were able to have our family of four under one roof - at least for a short period of time. We stopped in Iowa City on our way home to visit my family in Ankeny. Andrew looked at "Baby Al" and said, "Baby night night." He then proceeded to get a couple cookies from the nurses : ) It was a great way to celebrate the holiday and to remember how much we all had to be thankful for. We were also able to see both sides of our family and Andrew was able to play with all of his cousins. It's great to see them all together, running, screaming and just playing hard. 

Alexander had a hard Christmas as his stats dropped significantly and he had to undergo numerous tests to ensure he didn't have an infection. The initial tests came back okay but on Friday it showed that he did have an infection in his blood. He started 10 days of antibiotics and it appears to be helping. 

His lungs are slow to develop and he was put back onto the jet ventilator Christmas morning as it's much more gentle on high settings, which he was requiring. His oxygen was up to 60-70% and he was struggling. The doctors said that his lung disease is worse than other 24 weekers but they are doing everything in their power to help him. He started another round of steroids over the weekend and by today his oxygen was back down to 40% and his vent settings were much better. 

He's eating 23 cc every 3 hours and they started fortifying my breast milk so he will have more calories per serving. This should help him gain even more weight and help regenerate his lungs even faster. He's up to 3 lbs 1 oz so he's doubled his weight since birth!

It's going to continue to be slow but we are staying strong and positive and are thankful for all the prayers, thoughts, and support from all our family and friends - and those that we don't even know. It's all working to help Alexander get healthy and get him home to us!