We had another great victory yesterday!

This is a perfect example of our roller coaster, but I wanted to share another blessing and victory we had with Andrew -- on his echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) while it continues to show good functionality, his PDA has decreased in size, from very large to moderate!! Patent Ductus Arteriosus are valves in prenatal infants which bypass the lungs which usually close shortly after birth, but preemies' often stay open longer. This is a big deal, because if it doesn't close on its own, he will need heart surgery, and he can't have surgery when he has all of these infections. The PDA has been giving us a lot of secondary complications, so the fact that it is starting to close a little bit on its own is VERY encouraging. Hooray for Andrew!! You keep it up, little guy!

Another thing of relatively good news is that Ethan's infection is probably not too bad, as infections go -- it is a respiratory infection, but it hasn't developed into pneumonia. And hopefully since they jumped on it so promptly, it won't get much worse. Although all infections in preemies are life-threatening, it looks like this one is not as bad as most. They haven't identified the exact strain yet, but it is bacterial, not fungal -- so no aspergillus for him yet. He also continues to wean on the ventilator, and soon will be able to come off it, although with his respiratory infection we're going to have to be very careful.

So far nothing has grown out of either boys' lumbar punctures or blood cultures, so we are crossing our fingers that continues. It has only been 2 days out of 14, but any day that we don't get bad news in that department is a very good day :).

Thank you again for your prayers during our scares on Sunday, and transport on Tuesday. Emily and I can not express our gratitude enough for them. So many people are asking how they can help -- I hope you all know that I am completely honest and sincere when I say the very best and most important thing that anyone can do for us is remember our two little fighters in their prayers. The fact that Andrew has come so close to death's door twice, and opened it once, but still turns the corner and comes back to us is miraculous to me, and I feel due entirely to our friends' and families' faith and prayers. So thank you again.