Miracles Happen Everyday

If you are visiting this blog, you likely know our story, so I won't spend too much time on the details.  But, to quickly bring you up to speed, I was pregnant for 29 weeks and 1 day when my water broke.  I laid in the hospital for 3 weeks and 4 days doing my best to stay pregnant.  And, on November 8th at 3:31 pm the littlest Rabiola, Dominic Scott, decided he had waited long enough and he made his entrance.  It was a miracle he wasn't born the night my water broke, it was a miracle I was able to stay pregnant for almost 4 more weeks (80% of people deliver within 1 week of their water breaking) and it was (and continues to be) a miracle that Dominic is doing so well.  We hope to use this blog to keep our friends and family updated on Dominic's progress and our little family.  We may not be the most exciting people around, but we are lucky enough to have so many people that love and care about us and we want them to have a place to keep up with us!
Today marks D's 5th day of life and his 5th day in the NICU.  First of all, let me just say that we feel so lucky to have so many wonderful people looking after D.  We know he is getting the best care possible!  D was 4 lbs the day he was born and he is weighing in at 4lbs 1oz now.  Luckily, he has never needed assistance with breathing.  The first few days he was showing some spotty breathing patterns, but his NP said they have pretty much resolved themselves.  Until yesterday he had an IV in his tiny foot that supplied antibiotics and sugar water.  But, he is done with his antibiotics and they have upped his feedings enough that he no longer needs the IV and that was taken out last night (yay!).  At this point he is taking all of his "food" through a feeding tube in his nose, but he is trying to nurse as well.  This is pretty exciting because the doctor has told us that most babies (especially boys) aren't able to even try to nurse until later.  So, clearly D is advanced, but with parents like his, who would expect any less :)
As a preemie, his bilirubin levels (cause of jaundice) are high, so he is under the UV light.  They seem to think he should only be under that for a few more days, at which point we can start dressing him and work on getting him out of his isolet (his little plastic home).  The nurses continue to be amazed with his progress and so do we.  Like the title of this post says, miracles happen every day...and we call our daily miracle Dominic!