Where's My Caffeine?

January 3 (PM) - On last Friday's post, we mentioned that Grady Jeremiah had been on a medicine called Aminophylline since birth. It functions like caffeine in that it is a stimulant which helps premature babies breathe. It also is a bronchodilator, which decreases resistance in the body's airways making it easier to breathe. On Friday the doctors began to decrease the dosage. We asked you to pray that he would be able to keep breathing well. Thank you for praying! The doctors completely stopped that medicine yesterday, yet he continues to do well with his breathing. Since the medicine can last in the system for up to 48 hours, tonight and tomorrow will let us see how Grady Jeremiah does without any of it. Please keep praying for him to be able to breathe easily without the medicine. One part of this good news is that Grady Jeremiah is on no medicines any more! He just continues to be fed breast milk fortified with some vitamins once a day and milk fortifier for extra calories with each feed.Julia continues to try to breast feed him several times a day, while still making sure he gets all of his full feeds afterward. He is only able to drink about 10-16 ml of milk directly from the breast each day. He does well getting more in his mouth, he just forgets to swallow it! The doctors and nurses are not worried, since it is hard for premature guys at his age to be able to coordinate the suck, swallow, and breathe reflexes yet. Please be praying that he will be able to coordinate these things to be able to breast feed. We continue to be able to hold him for several hours a day, which is a highlight of each day for us. As we close tonight, here is a picture in his new "wild" outfit.