Eyes Open!

First he started moving his feet and then after a while he opened his beautiful eyes!  It was so nice to see Josiah move and to look into his eyes after more than a week of not moving.  Thank You Lord!  His last dose of rocuronium (muscle relaxant) was at 7:19 this morning.  Most of the day his sats were in the 60s.  When I last saw him he was getting 60% oxygen and his peep was down to 5 on the ventilator (it was 8 earlier this morning).  He had one desat to the 50s but sedation was able to bump him back up.

The plan is to continue to try to wean him from the ventilator and the sedation.  This is a test for him.  If he can't tolerate it then he will need to have another surgery.  You know what we're praying for.  Josiah does have some fluid on his lungs.  At least now he can work on coughing it up himself (he coughs and the nurses suction).  They had ordered physio yesterday to help get rid of the fluid but the nurses realized that he wouldn't be able to handle the physio so that was cancelled.

Josiah was able to look into his grandparents' eyes today as well.  That was their reward for waiting an hour and a half in a traffic jam.  It really shouldn't take an hour and a half to get from the York exit on the Gardiner to Elm Street in downtown Toronto!

I have been meaning to write about how thankful I am to God for the timing of all of this.  Before Josiah was born we had no idea how long we would be in the hospital.  Many children are in hospital for a number of months after birth.  Josiah was able to come home when he was just one week old.  Before his birth I had wondered if I would still be at the hospital with Josiah when our B.C. relatives were here for three weeks in July.  We were able to have a great time visiting with them and then they flew back on a Saturday and we were admitted to SickKids on the following Tuesday.  What a blessing to be able to spend time with them while they were here.      

Josiah is getting a small amount of my milk every three hours.  That will probably increase as he starts to digest more now that he isn't muscle relaxed.  Some people have asked about the milk process.  I pump milk at the hospital or RMH.  I put the milk in specimen bottles and affix a label which has Josiah's name, the date, and time.  I put these in a basket and a staff person puts the bottles in the freezer.  Once a day the milk is picked up and taken to a deep freeze in the basement and the nutrition department sends up the daily milk as ordered by the dietitian.  Right now Josiah gets my milk through an NG tube down his nose.  If  I were to stop pumping then I would lose my milk supply.  We have a small fridge in our room at RMH so when I pump there I just store my milk in the fridge until my next trip to the hospital.

It's time to go and look into my baby's eyes.  Thanks for your prayers!

Blessings,

Elizabeth