9-2-10

I can't believe that the most wonderful little man came into our lives 2 weeks ago today. It's amazing to remember back to those first few days and then to now and see the progress he has made. He really is our little miracle baby and a great fighter. I want to say a big thank you to all my Central Community Hospital coworkers for the care package yesterday. It is much appreciated. Shawn and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who is thinking and praying for our family. I believe in the power of prayer and that has pulled us through. They are talking extubation tomorrow or the next day which means he would leave this Bay 1 NICU where the critical babies are, and go to Bay 2-3, the step down unit. His nurse told me today that he is the first on the list out of here because he's made so much progress!

The stopped the viagra today because his lungs are doing much better. The ECHO they did once again yesterday still shows that he has the hole in his heart called a patent foramen ovale (PFO) that is nomally there in-utero then closes. They're thinking that it should close off once the pressures equalize and that the direction of blood is at least bidirectional which is a good thing. They don't know the cause of his high blood pressure because the renal ultrasound came back normal as well so they might have to put him on a med for his BP if it stays on the higher side. Today although it was down a bit even with the decrease of the morphine drip to 25mcg/kg. No withdrawal symptoms noted today while I was there. They also cut the scheduled ativan (med for restlessness) dose in half that he gets every 6 hours to 0.1mg. Oliver was very alert today looking around most of the day except right after he gets fed he drifts off to sleep. It is so great to see him more awake - he is so content being awake too. He's even starting to smile at us.

The doctors increased his feedings to an ounce now every 3 hours. They also put a PICC line (an IV type thing but it is more permanent) in his leg and he was so good for it. Once the PICC line was in they pulled out the umbilical venous catheter (UVC).

Oliver and I had a lot of visitors today. My God parents Arlyn and Karen visited as well as my friend Michelle and his grandpa and grandma Peterman. He was a good boy for all of them and even let them see him awake and with his eyes open. Tomorrow daddy will get to see him again and see how much progress his little boy has made in the last 5 days.