Today tops off a few solid days of progress with Kristen being able to hold Reid for a good 2 hours. His ventilator has been changed so that it is only giving him 15 breaths per minute and is allowing him to take anything over those 15 on his own. Needless to say, he is doing awesome!!! His feedings are up to 13 cc every three hours.

While making steady progress over the past few days, Reid has seemed agitated. He seems to turn bright red at the drop of a hat and for no apparent reason. In fact, it has the doctors and nurses scratching their head as to why. Dr. Metcalf thinks it might be from the steroids that he is on and jokingly called it "roid rage". :)

A little bit of bad news today though... Reid has an "inguinal hernia". Doctors say that about 1 out of every 3 premature males have this problem and will require surgery. We have a little while until it needs to be fixed, but they aparently dont like to operate until they are about 10 pounds. Supposedly it is a very minor "outpatient" surgery to sew up the inguinal canal to prevent the intestines from protruding through the abdomenal wall. A quick Google search defines the issue: "As a male fetus grows and matures during pregnancy, the testicles develop in the abdomen and then move down into the scrotum through an area called the inguinal canal. Shortly after the baby is born, the inguinal canal closes, preventing the testicles from moving back into the abdomen. If this area does not close off completely, a loop of intestine can move into the inguinal canal through the weakened area of the lower abdominal wall, causing a hernia." Ugh. If premature babies had a checklist of everything that could go wrong, Reid is quickly checking things off his list.

Anyway, on a brighter note, I will leave you with a few pictures and videos: