excitement

Well, we didn’t have too much news this last week, until last night. 

All last week, we just worked on growing, and physical therapy.  This is how we spent most our time . 

Laying in bed

 

Starting to wake up and look around a lot more. 

 

Since Hank could only be held 3 times a week (that is something that is constantly being debated), the nurses try to come up with creative ways to keep him entertained.

Hank’s nurses are his advocates for holding and have been putting pressure on cardiology to let us hold more.  Cardiology is worried that Hank’s temporary pacer wires will get pulled out.  You can see where they go into his skin. 

The neonatology team and nurses were successful today, and now we can hold as much as we want during weekdays.  How nice for Henry.  We hope that is something they won’t change their minds about. 

So last night, right before Steve was headed up to see Henry, we got a call from his nurse.  She said that Hank had been having to work to breath a little more than normal.  They had ordered stat labs and an x-ray.  His white count came back okay, and his CRP was only mildly elevated.  But, his x-ray showed a hazy lung on the right.  They thought he had a right sided pneumonia. 

So, what that means, is he gets to have a sepsis workup.  This includes a lumbar puncture, urine culture, blood cultures, and antibiotics.  Yipee.  So, he had an IV placed, had his labs drawn, his lumbar puncture done, and his urine collected.  He did so good for all this and really didn’t cry too much.  His such a tough little boy.  They also started him on vancomycin and gentamicin again.  Poor kid had a rough night with everyone poking at him. 

When I showed up this morning, Hank’s practitioner said that his x-ray today looked much better and they were pretty sure he didn’t have pneumonia after all.  His cultures from his sepsis workup have been negative so far.  They also did an RSV panel, which came back negative as well.  If everything stays stable, they will only keep him on the antibiotics for 48 hours.  Let’s hope for that (then they can remove his IV).  

Hank also had a heart ECHO today that came back looking the same as before.  So he is stable in that area.  We are glad he’s doing well and are just waiting (patiently as possible) for him to grow more and wean from his oxygen. 

Hank’s original cardiologist, Dr. Jason Su came by to visit today and has been visiting regularly.  He is the cardiologist that followed me from the very beginning when Hank was still cooking.  It’s nice to see faces around that we know and trust.  It’s great for Hank to have so many people cheering for him.   Dr. Su has always been weary when telling us how this pregnancy would turn out from the beginning, but has been surprised and happy with the results.  So have we.

7 weeks old (37 weeks gestation)