Day 33

This morning Mommy was anxious to get to the hospital to check on Walker and see how he had done overnight and talk to his doctors.  The nurse said that Walker had behaved on his CPAP all night and had stayed pretty low on his oxygen from 21-23% all night.  She said his color and tone was better than yesterday but still not great.  They had run labs on him to recheck a few things from yesterday and compare how Walker was doing.

When the nurse practitioner and the doctor came for rounds they discussed all of Walker's numbers and everything seemed to look good.  His hemoglobin was 10.6, which was up slightly from the day before, which is good.  They also checked several other things which are markers for infection and they were all normal.  They are going to continue the antibiotics they started yesterday for 48 hours just to make sure he is covered and recheck labs in the morning to make sure he is still on track and not showing signs of infection.

Throughout the day he started to act more and more like himself and began to get more fight each time the nurse got into his bed to check vitals.  By this afternoon his color was better and he was mostly back to himself, trying to pull Mommy's hand away when she checked his temperature.  We are hoping that he will continue to be on the mend and be back to his old self soon.

He also had his eye exam, they have a special optometrist that comes to the NICU and does eye exams on the preemies.  He does their first exam after they are 1 month old and then continues to do rechecks as needed while the babies are in the NICU.  Mommy didn't stay for the eye exam because the nurses told her even though they numb his eyes and he isn't in any pain the exam looks worse than it is.  So Mommy, Granny, and Uncle David left the doctor to do his check.  He said that Walker's eyes looked good and nothing unusual to be worried about which is good news.  He will recheck them again in a couple of weeks to make sure Walker is still continuing to do well.

Walker had mostly straightened up by the time that Daddy and Papa got here after work, guess he knew he better behave!  Daddy was excited to see his little boy doing better and acting more like himself.  He was able to change a diaper, but we decided that since Walker has had such a rough couple of days we would let him rest and not kangaroo tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow we will both have a chance to hold him if he is still continuing to improve.

Please continue to pray that Walker can regain his strength, also that he will be able to return to the cannula soon.  We are reminded daily that neither us nor the doctors are in control and this is all in God's hands, we are trusting in God's plan and not our plan.

Eyes wide open

Looking right at Mommy!

What a handsome boy!

Uncle David giving Walker some loving.

Daddy diaper change time!

Love this boy more than words can express!