So after our late night at the hospital, it was really hard to get up today.  I even slept through 2 pumping alarms!  Once I finally got things (ahem) cleared up, I gave the hospital a call around 9:30 and got pretty good news:

1. Sam was peeing up a storm- meaning his kidneys were starting to work again and they were going to take the catheter out!
2. The early indication from the blood smear was that there is an infection somewhere in his body.  This infection might be responsible for all of the kidney issues Sam is having, so treat the infection and all else gets better.
3. Sam responded really well to the blood transfusion and perked up nicely
4. To help gt all the air bubbles out of Sam's stomach, he was switched from the CPAP setting to the SiPAP setting.  Now, if I understood the difference correctly, the CPAP has a set pressure timed to an idea breaths per minute.  The CPAP setting does more to help you breathe.  The SiPAP keeps a continuous flow of air into your lungs- but you have to do the majority of breathing on your own.  Normally with preemies they go from the ventilator to the CPAP to the SiPAP to nose cannulas to nothing.  This is a big step for Sam and he is responding really well to the new breathing machine setting.

The unsettling part of the call, cause you knew there had to be one, was the concern that the infection could have migrated into Sam's spinal fluid and become meningitis.  The doctor had ordered a spinal tap to be done so they could just make 100% sure that his spinal fluid was not infected.  Hard to believe that there is a needle small enough to do a spinal tap on someone so small, but apparently there is.  We will get results from the spinal tap in the next 2-3 days.

While I was with Sam, the results came back from the urine culture- Sam was testing positive for ecoli.  This is apparently one of the more common infections for preemies.  Both the doctor and Theresa were happy with this result as it meant they knew how to treat it.  I will defer to them and try to be relieved with the result.  Also, both the doctor and Theresa are feeling confident that the spinal tap will be negative- Sam was doing too well to have meningitis in their opinion.

Since Sam was doing so well, and since I didn't get to hold him for 2 days, I settled in for a kangaroo cuddle with my little man.  The cuddle turned out to be really good for him, because as usual, he tooted and pooped while in my arms.  This was important since he had no bowel activity for almost 20 hours.  The more he starts moving in his bowels the quicker he can get back to his milk feedings.

After 2 days without snuggle time, both mom and Sam enjoyed their cuddle

Now for those of you wondering about Sam's size... he has grown!  At birth, Sam was 12 inches long and 1 lb 12 ozs.  As of today, Sam is 13 inches long and 1 lb 13.6 ozs.

Full body shot

Now for your moment of zen- brought to you by the loudest crying fit Sam has ever had!

Bonus clip: