Post Op - Day 5 - Holding steady

Hello again! We were all able to visit Caleb today as he was moved to the regular "peds floor" overnight. I can already tell a huge difference in nurse care, so here's hoping he gets to come home soon!! I wish I could say that I had a place to stay with him overnight or at least for a longer period of time, but I don't. He is in a double room and he is in the spot by the door. This leaves us with a chair next to his crib and that is it. The spot by the window has a bench seat, etc. to use, but not our side. :( The lack of nurse attention on a regular floor makes it much harder to leave him. He is more awake and alert the last couple days as well, so it is SO hard to leave him like that!! Those eyes just scream "please don't leave me here again"! :( I feel like he just lays there in his bed except for the couple hours that I/we are there to see him, hold him and talk to him. Like I said, getting much harder to walk away!! His blood pressure and oxygen levels continue to be good, so we are truly just dealing with feedings at this point in order to bring him home. He is suppose to get 45 cc every 3 hours. Whatever he does not take by mouth, he gets in his feeding tube. Well, today was not a good feeding day. Last night when they started this bottle process he took 30 cc's in the first two bottles. Unfortunately, today, he has hardly taken anything by bottle. I think the most he took for the nurse today was 20 cc's, but most of the feedings it was just 10 or so. Not sure if he is just not that hungry yet to eat every 3 hours or what the deal is, but he was wide awake for a couple of the feedings, yet he still only took very little. Hopefully it is just a matter of him getting used to being fed this often and maybe he is not feeling that hungry yet?? Not really sure, but hopefully his coordination of sucking and swallowing will kick in soon and he will start to feel hungry enough to eat that often as it will get him home sooner. I am not sure how much he needs to be eating by mouth before they will let him go, but the nurse mentioned it will probably still be a couple days. Here's hoping that is it!!

The surgeon also did not like the looks of his incision this morning so they sent something off to the lab to test it. Please pray he does not have an infection starting...that will certainly delay him coming home as well.

Please pray for his coordination in eating with the bottle and how his body handles it all. We are really hoping he can come home in a couple days, esp. with his new living arrangements! But that will all be determined by how well he is eating...

Thank you so much for sharing in this journey with us!

John & Joanna