7-3 10:35PM

Today may have been the best day of Porter's young life.

Karen and I got to the Hospital for the 11 AM, 2, 5 and 8 PM touch times. I got to hold Porter as he was fed through his stomach tube at 11. At 2, Karen was able to give him a bottle. He drank it all (25 mL.) This was a first for Karen. She has given him bottles before and he acts as though he has no idea what he is doing. We hear he takes the bottles very well from the nurses though. Karen had a hard time believing he was really doing it cause she hadn't seen it. Nurses explained that when he is in mom's arms he knows her smell and just gets comfortable and sleepy. So, she was able to hold him more out on her lap (see picture) and he stayed wide awake and took it all.

At the 5 PM time, Karen did his range of motion exercises (Physical Therapy) and he was fed through his stomach tube. They only let us feed him a couple times a day through bottle because it actually drains their energy to drink from a bottle and it can be counter productive to them.

At the 8 PM time this evening they wanted us to try to get him to nurse Karen. We were pessimistic about his ability. WOW...did he prove us wrong! He latched on for 7 or 8 minutes and nursed for a good 5 minutes. Had he nursed for 10 full minutes, he would have needed no supplement. But, since he nursed for 5 minuted he still got the other half of his feeding through his stomach tube.

His transfusion yesterday made a huge difference for him today. He was full of color and was very alert. It was much harder on mom and me then it was him.

Karen and I thank you all for your prayers. God is so good!

Much Love, -dad