Two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward.

As we walked into the hospital today we wondered if the doctors had decided to take Max off of the CPAP and move him to nasal prongs like they had planned to do. As we entered Max's pod in the NICU we were greeted with his whole little face, unobstructed by the large CPAP tubing. At that point he was breathing on his own (with a little unpressurized oxygen) for nearly 5 hours. There were a lot of ups and downs during our visit. He was quite comfortable when we arrived and his oxygen levels were nice and high. We decided that Rafael would try holding him today seeing as he seemed very comfortable - worst case scenario, he wouldn't tolerate it and he'd go back to his bed. So, Max was fed while being held and he did fairly well for about 15 minutes. The rest of our visit was Max ringing alarms on one end or the other. He was struggling a fair bit to keep his oxygen and heart rate up unless he was lying very still and very relaxed. Well, still and relaxed aren't really Max's style, so he would be fine one minute and sounding alarms the next. We left him to rest once he was evened out and stable.

We called later on in the evening to see how Max was doing in his efforts. They had decided to give him a break and move him back onto CPAP for a few more days. Breathing is a lot of work for a little guy like him, and sometimes the first try isn't the one to take. It's pretty common to move back and forth between the CPAP and the nasal prongs a few times before it just "sticks". On the plus side, now that he's back on CPAP his settings are offering him much less support than the last time he was on it, so he's moving forward in baby steps. In a few days he'll try out the nasal prongs again and see how it goes. At the very least, Max was much less aggravated without the tubes on his face, so maybe that will offer a little incentive for him to breath better. For now, he'll regroup and summon the energy for the next try.
We got some pretty cute pictures though - it's so nice to get some of his whole face!