Hangin in there

Today was a good day. For me, there was strangeness in that I returned to work and had to try to stay focused. For Kate, there was spending time at home alone, and at the hospital with our little man. For Cole, there was finally a good amount of rest and conservation of energy.

After some fiddling this morning, they totally found the settings on the vent which allowed Cole to snooze uninterrupted for hours. We are elated about this. It makes us feel calm, it allows him to conserve energy and get fatter, and though yesterday the decision to go back to the ventilator seemed like 50 pounds of doom in a 2 pound boy, today it feels like the right choice. He just feels happier and more relaxed. And since our state is tied directly to his (I think that's natural, right?) we also feel happier and more relaxed. He had zero spells this afternoon.

Breathe.

That feels good.

We thought he'd have his PICC line in today. Turns out they had some technical difficulties of some sort and weren't able to get it put in. I don't know what that means, but nobody on the staff seems too alarmed about it. So they said that the PICC line was going to go in tonight. BUT, it turns out that they can't put it in until 48 hours after they do a blood culture to make sure he doesn't have any infections. We have to wait until tomorrow at 3pm for that 48 hours to be up. I'm really looking forward to that, because currently he's on a temporary IV line which is huge and in order to secure it to his arm they have to tape a giant soft splint to his arm. He looks like he's got a permanent giant foam #1 hand that he waves around and bonks himself in the face with repeatedly. Cute and funny the first couple times, but then we remember that it's probably uncomfortable and heavy and we like seeing his little hands anyway.

The final bit of news is that they're feeding him food again. They stopped for a little while; I don't remember why. Something unrelated to the health of his digestive system; I think it was because of the initial attempt at PICC line installation, or switching to the ventilator. Either way, it's good to see him learning to use his belly for something other than to look like a little gourd.

Keep on truckin' little guy.