Home Again

Kristen was finally released from the hospital on Sunday morning. We celebrated by going to lunch at her favorite sushi restaurant (eating sushi while pregnant is not advised). While she is still quite sore from the c-section, Kristen is recovering well and has weaned herself from the more powerful painkillers. She spends a lot of time breastfeeding her Pump-in-Style and so that we can bring Carson some mother's milk in the NICU.

Carson has been in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta since just after birth and has continued to progress nicely. Originally he looked a bit like a science experiment with an IV line for fluids and nutrition, a tube into his lungs to breathe for him, a tube into his stomach to remove bile, three skin-mounted sensors for heartbeat, temperature, and who knows what, a pulse-ox sensor on his foot which measured the amount of oxygen getting into his bloodstream, a blood pressure cuff, two lines attached to his umbilical cord for blood draws and secondary blood pressure monitoring, and a urinary catheter.

He now has only the skin sensors, the pulse-ox, an external nose-mounted oxygen line, and a feeding tube. He has been able to take up to 65ml of breast milk through his feeding tube and keep it down so they are hoping to remove the tube and try bottled breastmilk later today. That is a huge step in the right direction if he takes well to the bottle. We also know that he has been able to maintain the necessary oxygen level in his blood even without the oxygen line (for short durations) but they are keeping that on just as a precaution for now. He is still on sedation but only on an as-needed basis (not a continual drip). Our only significant concern at the moment is that we have yet to hear him cry. He gets upset and tries to cry but we haven't heard his voice yet. Obviously, his trachea and larnyx are still healing so we remain optimistic.

Kristen and I are visiting Carson everyday at the NICU until he comes home. We don't have any estimate from the doctors yet, but I have my money on Carson being home by Saturday.