Saturday was a good day

It's something we all take for granted, but today we got to see the baby's eyes for the first time!! When I walked into the NICU today, my parents were there with him. Daddy came out so I could go in. He said Charlie was having a good day, but didn't elaborate. Little did I know what waiting for me...EYES!!! Well, as you can imagine, I lost it totally. It was a such a relief to see those precious peepers open and trying to look around.

It touched my heart so to see him semi-awake. Jason and I will always remember how that moment felt when we gazed into those eyes for the first time. We were also allowed to touch him tonight, which we haven't been able to do since Wednesday. Charlie seemed to know it was us there with him.





Charlie continued to make progress today. He was able to stay totally off the nitric oxide, and his oxygen levels were between 40-50% all day. He continues to be off all blood pressure meds, and his pain med drip was cut in half. That's why he was more alert today and was able to open his eyes finally.

He started taking more milk in each feeding...10ccs every three hours. He is starting to stool, which shows his digestive system is waking up, and his urine output was crazy good. His nurse weighed him early this morning, and he has gained almost 2 pounds of fluid weight in five days!! Thanks to a couple of doses of Lasix, he is starting to shed the extra fluid. His doc calls it his weight loss plan. He is the biggest baby in the entire NICU right now.

He does have one area of concern in the form of his partially collapsed lung, or pneumothorax, I mentioned yesterday. It means air is entering the space between his lungs and chest wall. His X-rays from today didn't show any improvement in the pneumothorax, but his vital signs are not signaling that he is in distress from it. Pneumothoraxs usually heal on their own, so since Charlie is not showing signs of problems as of tonight, his doc is sitting tight and waiting. She will do another X-ray in the morning and see if any improvement was made overnight. If he does start to show signs of distress, she will have to insert a chest tube, but she's hopeful that will not have to be done. We pray it's one procedure Charlie will get to skip!!

This a lovey that the Teddy Bear Transport ambulance nurse gave us on Wednesday when they were getting him ready to move from Harris SW to Cook Children's. Jason and I both slept with it to get our smell on it, and Griffin wore it inside his shirt for a while. We put it in his bed so he has something from us with him all the time. Since he was moving more tonight, Jason put the lovey in his sweet little hand.