Early Evening Update

James is off the ventilator and back on CPAP (the bubble kind again) on room air, and doing great. His belly looked a little big to us, but it actually measured a bit smaller than yesterday, so they're not worried. And he seems comfortable and more active, also good signs.

I think Mike's title in the previous post about Matthew may have been unduly alarming; if so, sorry about that! Our impression from the conversation with the doctor this afternoon is that while they want to figure out why Matthew's blood pressure is high, it's not something that presents an immediate danger. They'll treat it if they need to (with blood pressure drugs, similar to adults), because longer term it can make his heart work harder and cause damage, but they did another echocardiogram on his heart, and it looked fine (which indicates both that the blood pressure isn't being caused by any type of heart problem, and that the pressure hasn't caused any damage to the heart). We haven't gotten the results from the kidney ultrasound yet. But basically, a common cause of high blood pressure in preemies is tiny blood clots that can form when an umbilical line is used, which Matthew had for the first few days of his life (as did James). These clots can get into the kidneys and cause them to work harder, but they typically dissolve by themselves over time.