"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do. "
Eleanor Roosevelt

">Thankfully, yesterday and today have been "boring" days. Isaac seems to be responding well to the PDA surgery. His lungs are doing better and they have downgraded him to a different ventilator. They continue to wean him off the ventilator and he has been doing really well with it for the most part.

They began "feeding" him today. They are called "gut priming feeds" because all they are really for is to stimulate his digestive system into working. They're giving him about a tsp of breast milk for 5 days to see how he will tolerate it.

They moved Isaac to his stomach and I could see the stitched incision from his surgery. It was longer than I thought--an inch and a half or maybe even a little longer. It was weird to watch him sleep so peacefully with this scar on his back. He looked so peaceful curled up in a ball on his tummy, just like a full term newborn (only a LOT smaller :) I almost forgot for a minute while I watched him that he was in the NICU.

Jaska had a nice candid chat with one of Isaac's doctors yesterday, Dr. Wolkoff. He said that they are definitely shifting their focus now for Isaac from survivability to long term health. Even though there are still definite risks possible, they don't seem very concerned as to whether or not he can survive at this point. His odds of survivability and even good health are fairly high, considering. When he was born the doctor told us his odds of survival were only 20%. His odds of having major complications were 80%. Now his odds of survival are upwards of 80%. Not a bad jump :) We do have a very long road ahead still and many hurdles to overcome before we can stop holding our breath, but it was very reassuring to hear the doctor say what our hearts are telling us is true--our little guy is going to make it. :) Go Isaac Go.