Going good!

Yesterday went great! I was SO happy and in such a good mood. He took to the conventional ventilator great, was even on 21% oxygen right away (which is what we breathe) so that's awesome. 

They took out his umbilical cord lines last night, that was quite a struggle for the nurse practitioner. The line wouldn't come out even after soaking it for quite a while and then the sutures to keep it in were all tangled. It took her 45 minutes and it stressed him out a little bit. So I didn't get to hold him last night :( the plan was for me to hold him after I came back from a dinner break and she got his lines out. But he had enough by that point. Which is fine, I don't want to stress him I just want him better. I want to hold him so bad but I'm not going to push it. 

I sort of got to "hold" him. I was changing his diaper last night and noticed he soaked his bed. The nurse turned to me and asked, "Are you feeling brave?" My response was ummm, what do you want me to do? And she said well changing his bedding is a two person job. So I said sure, just tell me what to do. She had be lift Brant up with my right hand holding his head and his bum was resting on my left wrist with my left hand suspending all of his ventilator tubes while she changed the bed. 

Here are some pictures of us changing his bed

Yesterday there was also a couple that was touring the NICU. The head nurse Lori had came in and asked if it would be okay if they came in and met me and saw Brant. She said they had a baby here 2 years ago before the NICU was re-done and were looking into buying some new equipment for the hospital. Their baby was born at 28 weeks like Brant and they had wanted to specifically see the ventilators he was on. They came in and introduced themselves and just looked at Brant for a while then the mom started to cry and left the room. They had a little girl with them whom I had assumed was the one who was in the NICU then I learned that their little boy hadn't made it after they left. Brant's nurse Terry came back in the room with tears in her eyes and you could tell she didn't want to tell me their story and kept assuring me that Brant is going to be fine. I couldn't image having to go through that though and how hard it would be to come back. 

My mom was also in the room when they came in, and Lori (the head nurse) recognized her. They started talking and figured out that Lori was one of Cody's nurses when he was in the UW NICU 18 years ago. She really wants to meet Cody next time he is down there. Terry was also one of Cody's nurses somewhere along the way. Terry has been awesome, granted they are all great, but she has been there for the last 4 days and it's always nice to go into his room and see the same face. You get used to how each other operates and she always tries to include me as much as possible. She is off this week but will be back Friday and said she would do her best to be on as Brants nurse. 

This morning Brants chest x-ray came back normal. She said he has been stable his breathing has been a little fast. But with everything he went through yesterday and last night they are going to watch it closely and won't be doing any changes today. Just letting him rest. Mom, Nicki and I will be leaving at 6 a.m. tomorrow to go back down. I have a follow up appointment with Doctor Easterling and we are going to meet with the social worker to get housing figured out, and most importantly visit Brant.