+ 0 - 0 | § ¶a growth spurt
Apparently Alex has grown a half a pound in the last two days. He's now 5 pounds, 8 ounces. Go Alex!
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶An uneventful day
An uneventful day is a good day. He broke the 5 pound barrier last night. That's good. When babies are born, the tend to lose some weight initially, but he's made that up, and more. Now it's up to more of that good waiting.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶A question not quite answered...
Erica - We're not really sure what color his hair is. Right now, it appears to be the same color as both my hair and Dan's, which is a dark blonde. My hair also has a lot of red highlights in it, so it is entirely possible that he could end up being a redhead too. In case anyone is wondering about eye color, they look blue so far (according to blue-eyed Dan), but it's hard to tell with the lighting at the hospital.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶So peaceful!
Ever since he was moved back into NICU, Alex has been much calmer. He's been sleeping more soundly, has hardly been requiring extra oxygen or sunctioning from his mouth (a regular occurrence in PICU), and has just seemed happier in general. Since they've removed many of the tubes that he had, they are allowing us to be more involved when we go and visit. We've been able to hold him for as long as we want to, and the nurses encourage us to do things like measure his temperature and change him. In any case, it's a nice change and I hope that this calm lasts for a while.
I've attached more pictures of our little cutie pie...just click on "more" to see them!
(more)+ 0 - 0 | § ¶More good news
They've removed the second IV line from Alex's belly button today. They also removed the drainage line from his heart surgery. They also decided that his primary concern right now is no longer the heart condition, but instead, keeping his esophageal pouch cleaned out. As a result, they moved him back from PICU into NICU. We were told before that the move from NICU to PICU is a one-way trip, but I guess that is not a hard-and-fast rule. Alex behaved really well, the whole time that we were there today. He needed suctioning far less than he's needed in the last couple of days. The NICU is alot quieter than the PICU, so perhaps he was able to rest more.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Happy Birthday Kari!
Today is Kari's birthday, so we're going to try and see a movie sometime tonight, after we see Alex. It'll be nice to go out an do something unnecessary. We'll probably be getting around to updating the blog tomorrow.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶He's so cute!
Here are the promised pictures...
(more)+ 0 - 0 | § ¶An early birthday present!
Alex has been doing pretty well these past two days. He had a couple of tubes removed that make his bed look a lot more empty. The drainage tube from around his heart (a remnant of the heart surgery) is gone, as is one of the tubes that was placed in his umbilical cord area (once used to measure his blood pressure). Now he just has his esophagus drainage tube, the g-tube, and one remaining umbilical IV. The docs say that his heart is doing really well...his only problem right now is clearing his lungs of all of the goobers that accumulate with time. Every now and then, he has a spell where he'll turn a little blue and they'll have to suction his throat to help him breathe better. They expect that this will happen occasionally until he's able to swallow the goobers (when his esophagus is connected).
I did get an early birthday present today...they let both Dan and I hold Alex!! We have some great pictures, and a cool picture of a big Alex smile, but since we're at the hospital still, we'll have to post them later. Stay tuned!!