Monday, September 20, 2010

Caleb hanging out



Caleb without his gown



Normal baby clothes for the first time


Today was another good day. I put a normal sleeper on Caleb and finally took real baby pictures. He was well behaved!

Caleb is still on 2 liters of high flow regular air. They are going to keep that constant as we take the last diuretic dose to oral. I thought they were going to do that today, but it will be tomorrow.

Today, Caleb had a little more collapse in his left lung. I talked to the nurse practioner and she said that this is normal in babies post-surgery. They make adults cough and blow into the funny lung-exerciser things to avoid it. For babies, they beat on their chests with funky cups. Caleb gets "exercised" - or beaten - every two hours. He doesn't like it when they do the front of his chest and he seems to enjoy it when they do his back. The nurse listened to his lungs this afternoon and thinks that it is working.

The nurse practioner said that Caleb's kidneys are functioning much better and are nearing normal function. He is still losing electrolytes in his blood, but this is something that is expected and that can be fixed.

Caleb got blood again yesterday, but he was able to go 8 days between transfusions. That is his longest stretch yet. Between him getting stronger and fewer blood tests, he is keeping up much better.

The nurse practioner seemed to be very happy with the progress that Caleb is making. It sounds like we will be making some changes with his feedings next - after we wait out the last diuretic change and the lung issue. As every parent of a baby here says about ten times each day - "So far, so good".