I am back in St. Louis today and things are going good. Silas is doing very well, according to his doctors.
The ventilator is still out and he is doing great without it. He goes back and forth now between the cpap and a nasal cannula. That is a major step down from the ventilator and he is handling it like a pro. He also got his iv out today! Yay! He is off of his antibiotics and iv fluids. No more needles poking him in the hand. He is getting all of his nutrition from breast milk and a little bit of extra protein from something they call "fortifier." Apparently, after the first month, mother's milk has less protein in it than before. Probably because most babies need less protein after the first month, but my baby still needs lots of it so they are giving him a little extra.
He is digesting his food much better this evening than he did this morning too. They are doing another echocardiogram in the morning to check on that pda again. When the doctor listened to his heart today he didn't even hear the murmur at all. He said that it sort of comes and goes. Sometimes he hears it and sometimes he doesn't. He thinks the pda is small and because Silas is doing so much better they won't do anything else to close it. If it is causing a problem closer to when he is age one year, then they might consider doing something. It sounds to me like one big answered prayer though! We were all praying for that problem to just go away and I'm pretty sure it did! Praise God!
The doctor said the focus now is just to get him to start growing. He is holding steady at 2 pounds, 8 ounces. I think we will see a lot of growth this week. I just have a feeling.
Here's a neat story: Today, not long after I got to the hospital, the nurse opened up his his bed (the top raises up, so that we can get him out) and I started talking to Silas. I was standing on one side of the bed and the nurse and respiratory therapist were standing on the other. Silas was laying on his side, facing the nurse and therapist, who was putting his nasal cannula on him. I was talking to him and he started searching for me. He looked at the other women and knew that wasn't Mama. So he practically rolled his whole body over, turned his head completely to his other side, and was then facing me. He looked up at me like "Oh Mama! There you are!" He stared at me for several minutes. Then I walked away to get a chair and he started to cry! I moved my chair closer so that the nurse could hand him to me and then I held him for an hour and we tried to snuggle. He wasn't into that today. All he wanted to do was root around on my chest like a little piggy. He tried to suck his thumb but he couldn't get it to stay in there. I gave him his little bitty pacifier and he sucked on that some but he was such a wiggle worm. He just couldn't hold still. He finally managed get into a sideways position (instead of belly down) and then he just wanted to look at me. Seeing me kept him settled for a little bit but then he got all squirmy again. Soon, it was time for him to go back to his bed and that made him mad. He just wants his Mama I think.
And finally, some new pics!!
I think the nurse's hands put how little he is into perspective.
He is yawning, not screaming.
"Oh no! Another picture!?"
This was taken right after the ventilator came off on Saturday.
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