Day 51

Nate has graduated!!! Thursday, his respiratory therapist was starting to think that maybe Nate needed a longer break from his mask. His poor little head was starting to look pretty deformed form being squeezed in there for the past 3 1/2 weeks. The doctor told him he wanted to see how Nate would do with no rate while still on his mask and then they'd think about switching him to the cannula. He did so well that night that they wanted to surprise me Friday morning with a whole new baby. It was so great to see my little Nate's handsome face again! His head is already back to normal shape and he is so happy to be able to hold his ear again. He hasn't let go of it since :) The cannula is still a CPAP. The only difference is he doesn't have a consistent rate running through reminding him to breathe. It's a great step forward for Mr. Nate! We are so proud of him!

The past week or so had been fantastic for Nate. He made a ton of progress with many of his problems. He must have figured it was time for some trouble because Sunday was a pretty rotten day for him. Early Sunday morning his nurse noticed his belly looked really bloated and discolored. These can be signs of either another hole in his intestine or infection. They took an x-ray which showed a ton of air but no real signs of other problems. Just to be on the safe side though they stopped his feeds, did blood and urine cultures, gave him a blood transfusion, and started antibiotics. Poor Nate sat through 2 whole hours of being poked and tortured. He was a very good boy through all of it but he stayed awake the entire time. By the time the nurses were finished, Nate was completely exhausted. He slept the rest of the day without a single peep. He's usually a wild man and is always squirming around in his sleep so that was very unusual for him. The doctors have been pleased with his progress and are thinking it will resolve without any problems but have decided to keep him off feeds and on antibiotics for at least another day just in case.

Today was a much better day for Nate. He finally got his spunk back. He threw a full on fit while I was holding him today. This past week, he's learned how to lift up his head and flip it to the other side while we hold him. We were very impressed with him but we soon learned it makes it harder to hold him because he is always wanting to move his head and it takes him longer to calm down and sleep. Today when I held him he kept putting his face directly into my chest. The problem was he couldn't breathe with his nose smashed up against me so I'd turn his head to the side. After 3 or 4 times of him promptly squishing his face and cutting off his air supply and me moving his head back to the side, he lifted his head up, arched his back, and started crying with real tears and everything. I couldn't help but laugh at his attempt to get his way. It didn't work though because all of the energy he put into his fit wore him out and within a minute his head was turned to the side and he was sound asleep. Little turkey :)