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(yes he is that cute even with hat hair)

That's how things work in the NICU. Rewind to last Thursday. Carter was doing awesome so they decided that Friday morning they were going to ext abate him to c-pap. When Trav and I went to see him Thursday night we thought he looked sick. He was really puffy and his eyes just looked sad. Friday morning comes and they ext abate him. Wahoo! Well it only lasted about and hour before it wore him out and they put him back on the ventilator. Immediately after they bumped his vent settings back up to help him recoup. Unfortunately they kept going up over the next couple days. All Friday he just looked completely pooped and not to mention really puffy. Meanwhile the couple days prior to all this his incision on his back from PDA surgery was getting red, swollen, and forming puss pockets. The started applying a topical antibiotic. When that wasn't helping the did a blood culture and later a culture of the puss pockets and Saturday Morning we found out that Carter has MRSA (staff infection). Turns out we think one of the nurses was carrying the infection around because 3 other babies have it as well. They started him on some antibiotics for the infection and 8 days later we are just finishing them and he seems to be feeling so much better. When Carter was all puffy he weighed 3 lbs. 15.9 oz. Which was too fast of a weight gain so they started him on some medication to help him pee out all the fluid he is retaining. Today was the first day he has looked a lot less puffy. He lost some weight during the week and gained some healthy weight back and now he weighs 3 lbs. 13 oz.

After a week of him not feeling well we were able to finally get him back down on some of his vent settings. The plan is to get the rest down hopefully over the next couple days and then try to ext abate him again the end of next week. Please pray for him. Other than that he is doing awesome. He tolerates his feeds really well. He has reflux so they extend them to over a two hour time period. Have I mentioned his milk cocktail yet? The poor kid will not know what to do if he ever gets to taste straight milk. Right know they are adding two different types of calories to his milk, caffeine (to help him breathe more), protein, and sodium. It is quite the ordeal to get his milk ready. He has gone up to the next size of diapers and they look absolutely huge on him.

Here are a couple very cute and fun things about Carter.

He wears clothes! It is probably the cutest thing ever! He seems so much more like a "real" baby now. They are preemie size and are still huge on him. The length is perfect, because he is so long, but they are all quite baggy around.

He is such a Wilson which means he is a sucker for a head rub

He loves his Bink and does so well with his new big boy one

This is the new get up that anyone that enters Carter's room has to wear because of his staff infection. I hate it. It makes everything feel so much more "hospital". The part that stinks is that we have to wear it until he is discharged. I can't even feel his cute little bum when I change his diapers, because of those dang gloves.

Here is Carter getting stretched by the OT. He loves to be stretched. This was when they sat him up he wasn't too sure what to think. PS this was when he was so puffy. That ring around his neck is how it was all over his body. Poor baby.

Carter got a big boy bed. For a day. Can you even see him in there :) He is getting so much closer to regulating his own temperature so they put him in the big bed. That night he lost too much weight probably from burning too many calories trying to keep himself warm so they put him back in the incubator. Poor guy he gains too much then he looses too much. Those Doctors can't make up their mind.

Trav and I gave him a bath last night. It wasn't his first one, but the first that we have given him and he loved it!