Crying, Sneezing, and the Hiccups

Braden is doing great! He weighs 3 pounds 7.5 ounces and is about 15 inches long. He is really getting big! He does have a head scan today and we are praying that the blood clot in his brain has gotten smaller. We pray every day for this and we are happy that the blood clot is not growning. However, we would love for it so shrink!

Since the ventilator has been removed (yippee!) he only has a small feeding tube in his mouth. So we finally got to hear him cry! Over the weekend, he cried while Annie and Steve were there and he grunted for his MoMo. When I went to see him on Sunday, he was crying and very fidgety. We couldn't figure out why he was crying, he just kept on and on. Finally he sneezed about 4 times in a row. They were quick, rapid-fire sneezes! Once he got those out, he stopped crying and went right to sleep! It was so amazing to hear him cry and sneeze. I know that seems silly to be excited over such things. But over the last 2 months, he's been silent and we were so eager to hear those baby sounds!

Last night while I was visiting, his nurse, Leslie, gave him his dinner. Braden usually wakes up when he's being fed through his tube and those big, brown button eyes of his were looking right at me. So I began reading "Eeyore Has a Birthday Party" to him while he ate. Those big eyes started to get droopy. He was just about to fall asleep when he got the hiccups! And they were not the silent ones...they were those loud, audible hiccups. It was so cute! I giggled because they sounded so funny and I just wanted to hug him. The hiccups eventually went away and he drifted off to sleep. I decided to stay until the hiccups went away. I didn't want to miss even one of them. I stayed so late that I almost missed my bus! (I take the Dart Bus to the Dart Rail Station downtown. And if I miss that bus, I'm in trouble!) I was sad to have those cute hiccups go away, but I was glad that he was sleeping peacefully.

Thanks for checking on Braden today and thanks again for your prayers.