12:45am: [Kristen's blog] We would like to ask all of our blog followers to please pray for baby Joseph Martin. I have recently befriended his parents at Egleston and I know they would appreciate any and all prayers at this point. Joseph and his twin brother were born in October at 24 weeks gestational age. His twin passed away and Joseph, who was supposed to be going home this Monday has recently had some setbacks (NEC) and is now fighting for his life. I can’t imagine losing one baby, let alone two, so while we are so grateful for Reid’s continued improvements and can’t wait to have him home, we are reminded of the struggles that our fellow NICU families face. Please pray that baby Joseph’s bowels do no perforate and that the antibiotics do their job!! And also for all of the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and everyone else involved in his care—that they make the best decisions and use all of their knowledge to give Joseph the best care possible.

On a little lighter note, I spent the afternoon with Reid and while we were not able to go outside we had a fun time reading stories, talking and singing. His CO2 was 47 this morning but his O2 is around 60-65%. He was in a good mood the whole day and even laughed through one of his aerosol treatments. I have learned how to give these treatments and administer his medicines. I am so proud of myself! I also know how to change out the feeding tube and I gave Reid a bath Thursday evening all by myself. Bathing him is not exactly an easy task as he normally cries throughout the whole ordeal and we are more focused on his breathing and oxygen saturations rather than making sure he is getting clean. Too much crying leads to increased work of breathing which can lead to low O2 saturations which leads to a very nervous mommy and daddy. He does not like his baths at all so we are hoping once he comes home he will learn to like them and maybe even enjoy them.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. We enjoyed a very yummy dinner of lobster tails and dry aged steaks. Thank you Hamer family! We are 100% stuffed!!