03/31/2007

Well, I don't know about you, but I had a fanflippintastik day with my baby! We're 4 days off the vent. I got there today and saw the doc in the hall and she said "did you hear about Emery's chest x-ray?" and I said, "Oh sh**, what?" and she said, "it's the best chest x-ray he's ever had." For some reason Emery has diuresed a significant amount of fluid, and they really have no explanation. From the very beginning they have said that when one system in the body fails, another picks up the slack to compensate. This is why babies with lung disease can tolerate higher CO2 levels. The body compensates.

Well, their theory is that since Emery is doing the work of breathing his body is starting to help him out by getting rid of some fluid. We don't know if it will stay this way, but it was nice to see a great chest x-ray on a lesser amount of steroids. I told her my concern about Emery's fragile state. He is on the most support there is to keep him off the vent, including medications and SIMV/CPAP. She agreed that a simple common cold would put Emery back on the vent, but she did say that this is a huge hurdle and there is no reason to think that things shouldn't just get better, with cautious optimism of course.

Oh, and you know how I said that Emery is second on the list to go to bay 2? I figured out why. Half of the danged babies had already moved over. I noticed them gone when I got there today. Seriously, I'm not kidding when I say everyone else stabilizes before Emery. Today is the last dose of steroids. Please pray that he has no steroid rebound. The doc said they are watching him very closely for that.

I held Emery today for 2 hours. He liked it very much. We put him up in a vibrating chair, too, and he liked it. He opened his eyes and looked around. He likes his binky. Whenever we put it in his mouth he gets this look on his face like you have just given him a jug of ice cold water in the desert and he takes big sucks on it and then his eyes roll back in his head and he falls asleep. It's sort of what I look like when I eat cheesecake. Anyway, he seems pretty comfortable off the vent. He desatted a few times, but that was when he was messed with, like getting his diaper changed and tubes messed with. Otherwise, he just seemed like a content baby, complete with stinky poos and everything!