7 Weeks Old

Where do I begin with this blog.  Well, Nicholas has been on Decadron since Saturday afternoon and we haven't seen the drastic improvement we were looking for.........until today.  Nicholas was tried on the conventional ventilator this morning at around 8:30 and has been doing great ever since.  His blood gases look good every time and every time his blood gas looks good they wean him down.  His nurse said they've been weaning him down on his support all day.  When I went at 4 his oxygen was set at 40%, his pressure was at 6, and the biggest thing is that his assisted breaths was at 15!!!!  That means every minute the machine gives him 15 assisted breaths along with what he's already doing.  That is great considering the Oscillator was doing almost all of the breathing for him. 

Now for the best news of all.  Barring a setback tonight (which Dr. Cox does not seem to think will happen) Nicholas will be tried off of the ventilator for the 1st time tomorrow!!!!!!  That does not mean he will be breathing all on his own but that he will go to what is called SIPAP.  That means he will do the vast majority of the breathing on his own but they will probably set it to where he will have some assisted breaths every minute.  He has to do well on the SIPAP for several days before we can get too excited about the ventilator being gone.  I'm just ecstatic that he's to the point where they are going to try him off of the ventilator. 

The only bad part about all of this is that we still won't be able to see his entire face.  I saw the SIPAP on a baby in the NICU and it covers most of their face with what looks like goggles, a tube, and a brace to keep their mouth closed.  This is just minor though.  We will all get to see his face without any contraptions in no time.


Nicholas with his new clothes on 11/27/11.