Two Posts

Here's the update from yesterday, and I'll post one for today later tonight.

I got home so late last night that I completely forgot about the blog. Ooops! Carter had a good day yesterday. They are getting all of his tests and stuff done before the big day comes. He got his immunizations, another echo, and started his hearing test. We haven't heard the official results, but the nurse said that he didn't "completely pass" on his left ear and they haven't tested the right ear yet. We'll take "completely pass" as a good sign that he at least has some hearing on that side. Anything is better than nothing in our opinion. They didn't do the right ear because they needed some different equipment for it. Carter also passed off his car seat test, so now we just need to wait for him to get his feedings condensed before he takes a journey out of there.

Coming Along

Carter's still plugging along on his journey to the picnic. He had a very good day today, and got weaned down to the oxygen level that he'll be using when he gets out of that place. He's still not quite up to full feeds, but probably will be tomorrow. For some reason he was extra cute today too!

Almost 7 lbs.

Carter is almost 7 lbs. now. He's at 6 lbs. 15 oz. I can't believe that he's gained 2 lbs already! He had a pretty good day although it started off rocky when he wasn't digesting his food. Once he got some through his system, he was totally fine and has been doing well the rest of the day. They may try to increase his feed again tomorrow.

8 Weeks 1 Day

Carter is such a rock star that he actually got off of the ventilator last night. It was a lot quicker than we were expecting, and he's doing just fine back on the nasal canula. We went to see him today, and he was quite cranky. Who wouldn't be? He hadn't eaten since yesterday, and his IV went bad so they had to poke him a few times to start a new one. Since then he's started feeds again, but they are only at a quarter of the volume. Hopefully he can work his way up to full feeds again soon. We're very proud of our little guy!

Surgery

Carter had his G Tube placed today. We got there just as they were about to give him medication to sedate him while they put him back on the vent. Unfortunately, he had a bad reaction to it, and stopped breathing while he was in Michael's arms. It was pretty scary, but luckily the respiratory team was standing right there when it happened, so they got him breathing again without any problems. His surgery went really well.

Right now Carter has this foley catheter that we will administer feedings to. It looks a little worse than it eventually will because it has a surgical dressing on it.

Here is what his g button will look like in six weeks when they put it in. We'll have a tube that we hook up to it to give him his feeds. His is actually more to his left side. The diagram in the right corner shows what it looks like from a side view. We're hoping that he won't have it for very long.

G Tube

Well, there has finally been a decision made. Carter is having a G Tube placed tomorrow. This is a feeding tube that is inserted into the stomach through a small incision in his side. A little tube will come out of it, and we'll administer his feedings through that. The doctors feel that this will get him home a lot quicker than waiting for him to be ready to come home on an NG tube. There is a long list of reasons why they feel that this would be better, and although we're a little disappointed it's good to get the ball rolling on this. It probably really is better for Carter than the NG tube would have been. He will still be able to bottle feed, and as soon as he can take all of his feedings by mouth, he will have it taken out. The doctors told us to expect his picnic sometime next week IF everything goes smoothly.