It All Changes Friday!!

The plan is set and the expectation is Eli will be sleeping at home with us Friday night! They are getting the in home oxygen setup delivered to the hospital tomorrow at which point Kristin and I will room in with him tomorrow and/or Thur night. There is still a chance it would be Thursday if the insurance disallows one more night. I think I actually prefer Friday (not sure how I'll tell him when he is older that I was ok with him staying another night) as I do not have much time off work left to use and closer to the weekend would be better. We are simply watching him at this point because he stopped gaining weight once he went to demand feeding. Today he pulled in a 3 ounce gain with the addition of formula for some meals so we are thinking this is a non issue.

Jack had an up and down day. Good news was that he had some huge diapers and was able to lose three ounces. At least part of this was aided by the medicine they put him on and off of which makes him urinate. The trick will be whether he can keep the fluid off. Other good news was that they were able to ween the ventilator yet again. The bad news for the day was they had to stop his milk feedings for the second time in 5 days. There is growing concern that he might have a block somewhere in the intestinal track. Hopefully this is not the case as the way to resolve those types of issues is surgery. It could also be that they just need to build up his feeds much more slowly as he was not digesting anything for several weeks when he was sick/being treated for the heart murmur. He is looking the best he has in a LONG time. I tried to get a picture but he was covering his face. It is not always easy to get him to rest peacefully. Usually he uses the free hand to try and pull out his ventilator....so, I opted to not move his hand away for a picture!

Eli's picture makes it look like he is all twisted and resting on a shoulder pushed way forward. That is actually his hand up in the shoulder area of his clothes. The boy will not, WILL NOT, let his arms be swaddled. This time since he could not break the end of the sleeve free, he worked his way out within the sleeve. This is the same hand again he had up by his chin in ultrasounds and during birth. Oh, and the other picture is showing off the fact Eli is now over 7 lbs and (not on whiteboard) he is now 18 3/4 inches long.