First bath with Mommy!!

OK, this must be the best way to wash a baby ever! Since Josef like being swaddled, this makes perfect sense to keep him swaddled, and he never seemed to get too cold from this method either! So after we put the baby in the little tub, and we only did that because there wasn't a baby tub available... Anyway, we washed the face, then we slowly pulled apart the blanket and washed his tummy, then his arms and legs, and then his privates and his back. Then we got a large syringe (without the needle and "hosed" him off). So we followed this by wetting his hair, and we had to be careful since he had his IV in his head at this point... and put on some baby wash and rubbed it in and then rinsed it off with a cloth. So he was all clean and I had to rub him dry under a heat lamp. I had so much fun doing this!

So, you may notice in the "All clean and no IV" picture above that he lost his IV at some point today, I think he may have actually pulled it out, but Carol, the nurse had thought she had seen blood when we gave him the bath, but we just didn't see any when I patted his head to see what came up on the cloth! So I get ready to have him latch on and I saw the blood, so I called her over and his IV had come out. So we took his unicorn horn off. I got him to breast and the nurse went to check with the doctor and we were informed that we did not need to put it back in, since his feedings are going up in amount (oh, and we will reach 50cc's at 5AM tomorrow) and he seems to be doing so well. So, now it is just a matter of getting rid of the feeding tube, the oxygen nasal prongs and the bili blanket! He gets another bili test tomorrow so we can hope he gets to get rid of his bili blanket bingo and we can perhaps remove the feeding tube if he handles the 50cc's well, and then... It is just that darn oxygen.
The good news in terms of his breathing is that he doesn't seem to be workign so hard at it anymore, he chest doesn't look like his lungs are collapsing with each breath he takes... He his having much less trouble breathing and he has made two accomplishments in that respect:
1. His air flow, or what can best be described as the force with which the air is pumped into his nostrils has been lowered from .5 to .3!
2. He is staying at 40% oxygen versus the 80-100% he required before!

I also saw Malcom's mommy today, we got shushed by a nurse! I feel bad, but only another preemie mom can understand just how exciting these milestones can be! So I don't feel all that bad, since both Malcom and Josef are doing so well!
Say your prayers for Malcom who needs surgery, and will get it sometime soon...