newsflash: gavin is a miracle

yesterday they adjusted gavin's birth age to 24.4 weeks as to what they think he actually was when born on april 5th. i think they probably waited until 30 days of life to make the adjustment so we could feel a little better about ourselves thinking we had given birth to a 26.6 week old baby boy. gavin continues to show amazing signs based on this new revelation.
he is teetering on the 2 pound mark between yesterday and today. he continues to tolerate his feeds and is up to about 9 ml's of food every 3 hours. i'm not sure about you but i think i'd be pretty full after a big meal like that. with the help of his 3rd round of steroids he is improving on his oxygen needs and on his ventilator settings. he will continue to get weened on steroids for another week as to not make the mistake of bringing him off too soon. as we always mention there are always risks to the steroids and to the potential effects of neurological issues and IQ point losses. please pray that his brain and body will continue to be protected!
he received his 30 day head ultrasound yesterday and the prelim report showed a grade 1 brain bleed. these ultrasounds are graded on a scale of 0 to 4 with zero being nothing and 4 being the worst. a 1 revealed that he shows signs of some veins in the brain that, through stress, have bled out a bit. we are told and reassured that this is very common in preemies and that a lot of times these just absorb into the body with no long term effects. you know how to pray people! pray that there would be no long term effects and that his head would grow at a normal rate. he gets a head circumference done every week and his head should grow by a .5cm a week. so far, he is perfectly normal on his head growth and his head looks perfect to us. they will continue to measure to make sure that it doesn't grow bigger than it should as that would be an alarm to the fact that there is blood on the brain. we trust you Lord for healing!
it looks like tracee will get a chance to hold him on mommy's day this sunday. please pray that this will happen and all will go well and that it will be a perfect and special day for us.
these days, even when he begins to do "well" i have a hard time feeling peaceful about that. i have been dealing with this stuff for over 7 weeks now (3 before tracee gave birth and was on bed rest and then hospital) and it appears we have another 12 weeks or so in the NICU.  thank you for continuing to lift us up when there feels like there is nothing left in the tank.
really dwell on the understanding that gavin is a true miracle. when i look at him he really and truly looks perfect - just micro. i know this economy is difficult and our governments are in disarray and our finances have been hit hard and the sky is falling and on and on...but gavin creates the need to stop and dwell and really think about what is important. have you done that lately? have you done that today? my grandparents always counseled me about feelings. every single one of the "worldly" things i just mentioned above will cause us to "feel" something about them. my grandparents used to say "YOU make me so mad isn't an appropriate statement. nobody can make you feel anything, it's rather a choice you have to make." rather, don't give the power to somebody else or to the world or to that circumstance. own your feelings. you can say "i feel mad when..." or "i feel sad when..." and i think i bring all of this up because gavin serves as a barometer for what feelings are really appropriate and what is actually really important. gavin is teaching us how to live better lives and how to be better husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends and sisters and brothers and employees and employers, and of course, better mommy's and daddy's. get your bracelet and allow that to serve as that reminder of what order you have your priorities lined up in this life.
thank you faithful followers!
PS - please post from where you all are following from across this country and the world so we can be encouraged by that. :-)

jeramy