They said the H word!

Liam's progress seems to have taken off at an exponential rate!  He did so well the other night in the isolette in clothes that he was moved up to a crib!  In fact, the nurse said that she felt she was cooking him in the isolette because his temperature was so high.  She had to unbundle him to keep him from overheating.

We were so used to seeing him in the isolette that he looked itty-bitty in the crib. He has done very well in the crib and continues to gain weight. He now is up to 4 lbs 6 oz and climbing.  He's almost up a whole pound over his birth weight! 

The physical therapist came in yesterday and we got a hint of what may be coming. Liam was supposed to have his ankles taped but she decided that it was better to go ahead and fit him for splints/braces. She seemed to think things were beginning to accelerate towards discharge!  Liam now has a pair of neon green ankle braces that he'll wear off and on to keep his feet in alignment.  This will be first of many braces that he'll have.  He doesn't really know what to do with his feet with them on; he's almost dangerous in the way he kicks those feet around. The PT also removed his "froggy" (what supported his head for so long) and his sleeping bag. She said that he doesn't get to take those home and that he needs to get used to sleeping without them. So far he has done okay without those. He took a nap this afternoon without them and didn't seem to notice. However, he does not like to be swaddled at all. His arms always find a way out.

My new kicks!

After talking wIth the PT yesterday we figured it would be a good idea to get in early today to make sure we are at the hospital when the doctors did their rounds. When the doctors arrived we got a glimmer of hope when they started saying the "H" word....HOME!  Liam is doing so well that it looks like he may be able to come home in the near future!  They haven't set a date yet, but it's looking like it may be the end of next week or the week after. They've begun to schedule some of the tests he needs before he's discharged and we've started doing some stuff on our end that needs to be completed before he's discharged.  We've had to watch a few educational videos and we're schedule for an infant CPR class on Sunday.  Liam is scheduled for brain and spine MRIs on Monday and Tuesday, which is standard protocol for spina bifida babies.  Hopefully he won't have to be sedated for them.  They are going to try getting him nice and full before and see if he'll sleep right through them.  He had another head ultrasound today as well, but we haven't gotten the results back yet.  Again, this is a standard procedure as well to make sure things are remaining stable.

Are you my daddy?

The dreaded circumcision will be scheduled for next week as well.  This is something that is usually done shortly before discharge so things are definitely progressing in the right direction.  They have been focusing on growth and some things had to wait until later.  One of the last things that we'll have to do is a car seat evaluation.  Liam will have to remain in the car seat for the expected duration of our journey home, which is 6-plus hours.  They aren't sure yet if they'll be allowed to break it up; we're obviously not going to go 6-hours straight back to Virginia.

My girlfriend, I mean nurse, sitting me up in my crib.

We are trying not to get our hopes up too much, but it's exciting that this phase of our journey with Liam might be coming to a close.  We obviously would like to be back home with him but we also don't want to rush things unnecessarily.  The doctors feel the same way.  They are going to continue to monitor him over the weekend and re-evaluate things on Monday.  Liam is still getting the hang of eating from the bottle.  Sometimes he gets a little too aggressive and forgets to breathe, causing his heart rate to drop.  He'll have to go for a while without any of these episodes before he'll be allowed to leave, othewise he may have to come home with monitors.  He's still a little small to be fed exclusively through breastfeeding; it wears him out too much that he's too tired to eat from the bottle. 

Lounging after drinking all my milk...Nighty night.

Please pray that everything continues to go well so we can get our sweet little boy home to the beautiful mountains of Virginia in time for fall!  We don't expect much to change over the weekend so we'll probably have just one update over the next few days.  No need to panic if you don't hear from us.  Hopefully on Monday we'll have a better idea of what our discharge plan will be.