Day 5: Why

I've only really been in contact with family and facebook but I am a little nervous about church tomorrow. Grace's assistant teacher from Kindergarden saw me Friday at the school and asked, and I thought I'd be just fine, but the lump in my chest, came up my throat, and was doing everything it could to come out my eyes. Big deal. I cry.

Why is Grant still in the NICU?

When he sleeps his oxygen saturation drops, most babies readjust or take a deep breath, he does not. He just breaths shallower and shallower until his alarm goes off. He has to out grow that to come home. They are testing him. They take him off oxygen and see how long he can sustain himself on room air. If he drops below 90 and stays and does nothing; like move, breath deep, etc, it proves he still needs the oxygen. We are past the point of needing it around the clock. He's gotten to the point that he can sustain himself while sleeping, just not all the time.

He gets one test every nurse shift (7a-7p or 7p-7a) that he can prove he is ready to try. I love the nurse I had today (twice now). She's very informative and very aggressive on keeping that line between helping him with O2 and making him work to progress very fine. The first time was 1.5 hrs. Today he made it 5 hrs before needing help. They put him on the lowest amount of oxygen needed so that he does not become dependent on it and balance that with not letting him get so low that he wears out and needs more than the minimum. We'll get there. Probably not in the next day or two but next week is highly likely. On top of that, since he takes two steps forward and one step back, they want a 48 hr perfect record to let him take his car seat test (2 hr buckled in perfect O2 for him).

So, that's why.

In happier news, the nurses call him a bottomless pit. Who wouldn't be happy that their son can out eat everyone in the NICU (including what a set of twins can down per day)?