Coming Home Attempt Number 2

Noah is now midway through his 24 hours without heat - a requirement for him to come home. This is of course attempt number two. A couple of days ago they thought he was ready to come home but he got too cold (rectally in the 96 degree range). Newborn babies sometimes have difficulty regulating their own body temperature - especially if they were born premature. Tomorrow morning is also the second time that he has been scheduled for a circumcision. We joke that he got cold last time on purpose to get out of being circumcised. We'll see how the night fares. Here is a picture I took of him a couple of hours ago. Eli is still continuing in the right direction. He is now officially under 7 lbs. Oh yeah, Noah is 6 lbs 4 oz as of today. So both Eli and Noah are in the 6lbs range (Eli should be under six pounds but he still has some swelling). Eli's Oxygen is down to 40% and his Nitric Oxide is down to 10. Both of those numbers are half of what they were yesterday. I'm going to stop posting Eli's PaO2's because his blood gasses have been spaced out to every 8 hours. They upped his sedation a little bit because he was getting a little jittery due to the Oxygen withdrawls - he is used to breathing 100% oxygen (normal people breathe 21% if that tells you anything). I'll spare you the details on the rest of his medicine changes. His chest tube fell out today. All of his swelling pulled the skin apart and even popped a few stitches in his side. A chest tube had been placed to allow draining of excess fluids. The pediatric surgeons did not seem to concerned, but they might have to add something for drainage if his esophagus didn't heal fully and is leaking. I added a picture from yesterday showing the tube. We got the bill for Eli's surgery today - $12,000. When all of their medical expenses add up I have no doubt that they will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are grateful that the babies are covered by Medicaid - otherwise we'd be in some serious financial trouble. Amanda has let me post a picture of Eli for everyone to see. Keep in mind that he looks tons better than he did even a few days ago. He still has a lot swelling around his head and torso though. He is a miracle baby in so many ways. We just pray that he will continue to get better and that his pulmonary defect won't lead to a permanent disability.