Getting Smaller

The biggest evident change for Gabriel this week was small. We moved him from the large to the medium nipple hole. (Small is the normal size.) His sucking strength is now mostly up to the medium hole.

In many feedings he chokes on the milk, but only coughs a maximum of two times, and rather weakly, and with worse breathing ability following, making us think that he may be getting some milk into his lungs often.

He continues to make small gains in strength, responsiveness etc.

He came thru Chinese New Year without a single response to all the loud booms. It makes me think this response that one day to two sounds was indeed a sign of a healing to come.

The biggest change for us is that with his overall breathing gradually improving, while we are still sleeping in shifts, the caretaker can now sleep between feedings without worrying too much. So our sleep deprivation has decreased.

How do you dry diapers in rainy season when you can’t get them beyond damp? We faced that problem the last few days. I tried wearing one as a shawl, but that was a very slow drying process. (Sorry, no pictures available.) The solution I finally came up with was to hang three diapers at a time on the back of the refrigerator – our only useful source of heat. They dried just quickly enough to keep ahead of Gabriel. Now the sun has come back out and the diapers are drying properly on the line.

Prayer Focus

Keep praying for growth for Gabriel:

Ps 92:12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

One other thing we’ve been impressed to pray for is breaking bands/bonds:

Ps 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death

And broke their bands apart. ... 20 He sent His word and healed them