A picture is worth a thousand words...

...and what a difference a day makes! We were told last night when we called in to the nurse for our last update (before we head to bed) on Caleb that the neonatologist and heart surgeon were going to meet between 10 and 10:30 this morning. I figured one of us should obviously be there as they were going to discuss Caleb's surgery/care. So this morning I got up and headed out of here early to get there in time to meet with them. I called Caleb's nurse on the way to let her know I was coming and she just had to tell me that Caleb was a completely different baby today then he has been the last couple days. Sure enough, when I got there, his oxygen saturation numbers were much better then they have been for the last week. The nurse mentioned that he had been awake for most of the morning, so she was able to give him a bath, etc. He has not been that awake for days. He was truly getting to the point where he was completely lethargic and not waking for much of anything. Apparently, the medication that the cardiologist wanted to try for 24 hours, just to see if it might help him make it to surgery has done a world of good for him. I was so thrilled to see him so much more awake and lively today. With this, his oxygen need has come down from 5 liters and they were able to start feeding him through his nasal tube again today. He was taken off of all feedings a couple days ago as the Dr. was afraid it was putting too much stress on his already overworking system. So with this completely new baby, he was put back on small feedings through his tube. He was much happier after he was finally able to get something in his belly!! He was getting irritable up to that point and sucking the life out of his pacifier - which certainly told me and the nurses that he was feeling SO much better.

Another change came this evening when he was moved to PICU (pediatric intensive care). We were surprised to hear this, but apparently it is a 'step down' in his care and not so intense as the NICU. It will certainly be quieter for him, that's for sure! The NICU room had lots of babies in it and there was always a bunch of alarms, etc. going off. They needed to thin out the NICU and so he got the boot. I guess that is a good sign! :) With this, his big brother and sister are allowed to now visit!! We can't wait to take them in to see him!!

The big test will come in the morning when the cardiologist will do another echo cardiogram of his heart and see how things are looking. If things are much improved with the small pulmonary artery, then he may not need surgery at this point. The medication he is on is some kind of "smooth muscle relaxer" and is hopefully relaxing that tight pulmonary muscle. We know he will need surgery someday, but if the medication has helped him this much already, here's hoping he will not need to endure surgery quite yet. He can come home on this medicine and get a little bigger before they would have to do surgery. We have been down this road before and are certainly hoping for the best, but know that when food was added to his system the last time, his system had a very hard time managing it all. So here's hoping the medicine can help him enough so that feedings, etc. are not going to be a problem again.

Here's hoping we are on the right path!! We would certainly LOVE to avoid surgery right now!

Thank you SO much for your prayers! What a great day he has had today, thank you so much!!

Joanna