Little Rockstar

Lincoln is doing very well. His night nurse keeps calling him a "rockstar." He has handled the weaning very well since they resumed. Yesterday they started to wean his nitric oxide. They turned it down by 5 every 12 hours. They have been able to wean three times now, getting him from 20ppm to 5ppm. They are continuing to wean his oxygen every few hours as long as his saturation levels are close to 100% according to his pulse oximeter. He is currently down to 28%. (Remember, 21% is what you and I breath.) Lincoln has been breathing over the ventilator a lot too, meaning he is taking breaths on his own instead of letting the vent breath for him, so the doctors also were able to wean his breathing rate twice. From 50 breaths per minute to 46, and then to 42. Linc seems to like the lower rates. He seems to be more tolerant of lower nitric and oxygen as the rate decreases as well.

I also think that starting feeds has helped him too. He is now up to 3mls of breast milk every 3 hours. He is still getting the rest of his nutrition from the TPN and lipids. They were able to switch him to oral Sildenifil yesterday too! So, that's one less drip on his IV. His tower of meds is slowly decreasing. We are so proud of Lincoln! He turned four weeks old yesterday. He's growing up and learning to breath on his own! When I arrived this morning, his linens had been changed. They placed his oak tree blanket on him that was a gift from Ron and Abby, symbolizing his strength and longevity. How fitting!

The surgeons used to round every morning in front of Lincoln's room. They would start with him and another child with CDH, and then talk about the other patients in the NICU. Since Lincoln's surgery last week, they have moved to round somewhere else. I asked the nurse about this, and she told me that they round in front of their most critical case. In the past weeks, I often thought about whether Lincoln was the sickest baby in the NICU, but I didn't want to ask. It is comforting to know that he has moved off of the front burner in their eyes.