March 31st

Hi all,

Sorry we haven't been in touch for a few days; we've had lots of family visits as well as network issues, so we haven't been able to write.

Things are going okay here. We got some tough news Thurs afternoon regarding a pretty serious brain bleed Charlie had, so Thurs wasn't such a good day. It's hard to tell right now what the effects will be - the bleeding is only on one side of his brain, which is a good sign, but we're just going to have to wait it out as they continue to take ultrasounds of his head every week and monitor his progress. We're praying the bleeding has stopped and won't come back. But Friday through the weekend, he's really been much calmer, and he was breathing well enough and making such good use of his oxygen that they were able to extubate him. Now he's on a C-PAP that assists him with his breathing, but isn't nearly as intrusive as the full ventilator was. He could get tired out and need to be intubated again, but for the time being we're celebrating how hard he's working to breathe without the help of that big machine, and hoping he continues to work hard.

As all infants do, he lost a little weight in the first few days, but he's now surpassed his birth weight, and they're currently culturing my milk in the hopes that they can start him on it later this week. That will be wonderful - I had no idea of the amazing healing qualities of breast milk until all of this, but now that I know, even the 2 a.m. pumping is no sweat. Our family visitors have taken to calling me "Elsie".

He had his first true dirty diaper on Saturday - to those of you who have changed a million of them, that probably doesn't sound like something to celebrate, but for us it was a good sign. The nurses have been really great - yesterday's had George change 2 diapers. He did a great job - it's not an easy task when wearing sanitary gloves, putting your hands through portholes, and trying to avoid all the wires and tubes in our little guy.

Thanks again to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and kind words. We appreciate all of the support - we're very lucky to have so many great people in our lives pulling for Charlie.

Love, Marie and George