Andrew day 22

He is doing great today. His ox saturation is high 90s. They scaled his vent pressure from 14 down to 11 last night. He was on his tummy all night and he tolerated the low pressure well. They flipped him over to his back this morning, his co2 level rose and is now hanging out in the 70s.

They are looking toward Monday to see if he can come off the ventilator and on to CPAP.

His feedings are going well and he is up to 15 mil every 3 hours. He still hates wet or poppy diapers and makes sure everyone knows it. (I love that.)

Andrew day 20

Andrew started the day with his vent pressure setting at 16. They had been coming down on the pressure 2 points each day since the beginning of the week. This morning they thought about taking him off the vent all together. Dr Keller advised that they put the pressure down to 10 and watch him for 24 hours. A pressure of 10 simulates what it will be like with no breathing tube but still assisted by an oxygen mask. He tried his best, but by this afternoon he was desaturating drastically and they put him back up to 16.

He finished up the evening with really good stats, sleeping soundly, on his belly.

Andrew day 19

Andrew is down on his ventilator pressure today so that is one step closer to being weaned of the vent entirely. His feeding and pooping is going well too. Stats are looking great today so overall its been a day of progress for him. We'll take as many of those as we can get.

Andrew day 18

Andrew is doing great today. He looks so good. He is so alert when he is awake. He opens his eyes wide and moves his arms and legs. Its so fun to see him look right at me. The docs have adjusted the settings on his vent so that he is initiating all of his own breaths and appearing to like it.

He still requires a couple doses of sedative a day. It takes a lot for him to digest his milk. That, among a host of other things could be causing him discomfort. When he can't calm down on his own they give him some sedative.

He also appears to be very sensitive to sound, to people moving around, and he loves to be swaddled. He has been getting very warm when swaddled and he sets off the alarms.

I got to hold him for over an hour and he was very relaxed and happy. I almost fell asleep.

Andrew day 17

Andrew is doing well on the conventional ventilator so they changed the setting on it so that he initiates each breath and it helps him along. They don't know if he will be able to maintain this level because it often makes him very tired. So he might go back and forth between assisted and not assisted. So happy.

Alex got to take Andrews temp yesterday.

Andrew day 15

Last night they transitioned him to the conventional vent and he is tolerating it pretty well. He had had a few episodes where his oxygen saturation went way down and they have to bag ventilate him to get him back up where he belongs.

The great news of the day is that I got to hold Andrew! It was 45 minutes of bliss.

Andrew day 13

Andrew has had a great day. He is tolerating his feedings well. And making  wet diapers more than he ever has before. Chris is with him at the hospital today and he says that Andrew is alert and opening his eyes and giving cues of discomfort. His stats also look very good today.

They gave him a little blood and a diuretic which may have helped him feel better.