Steady as he goes

A few major accomplishments for Lincoln the past few days:

He is now off of the IV TPN and lipid diet and taking only breast milk for food. He is now getting 50mls every three hours through his feeding tube. His dose increases every 12 hours, and is fed on a pump over an hour. The goal for Lincoln is somewhere around 75mls every three hours. Lincoln has been having some tummy trouble, so feeding with a pump over a longer period seems to be helping. His stooling has slowed a bit (a complication from the narcotics) but he is still doing well. Lincoln has begun speech therapy along with his physical therapy to prepare him for bottle feeding. The therapy is mostly assessing his sucking ability and allowing him small tastings of breast milk with his feeding. He gets a few drops at a time by dipping his binky in some breast milk. He has done a great job so far and hasn't choked once! He seems to be ready to try oral feeding as soon as his oxygen flows turned down a bit more!

Lincoln's flow has been turned down to 4 liters with oxygen percents between 25 and 35. His breathing rates have improved some too. He still has periods where he is breathing fast, usually when he gets upset, but overall he is breathing more evenly and easily. His round of antibiotics and albuterol for his suspected lung infection have been discontinued. As he continues to do well his flow will be turned down more and he will be allowed to begin feeding by mouth.

As far as his IV drips, Lincoln is no longer on Fentynal! His main narcotic that he has been on since birth for pain and sedation was turned off yesterday morning. He now gets a dose of morphine every three hours through his feeding tube. The morphine kind of takes the place of the fentynal in Linc's body, helping him to not have withdrawals as he gets over the wean. He will be slowly weaned of the oral morphine over the next 10 days or so. Linc is still on two sedation drips, one of which is due to be shut off today. He will then be down to only one drip and one IV med given every few hours. Only two more to wean and he will no longer need his IV! What an accomplishment!

Lincoln has been showings more and more of his personality as he is feeling more healthy. Everyday he makes great strides in tolerating more stimulation. It is wonderful to see him calm and alert for long stretches several times a day. He is also begining to allow me to gently massage him, where as before he would not tolerate any stroking sensations. Of course he is still fussy sometimes, but I cannot blame him! Even babies without CDH are fussy for various reasons! We are now to the point were a lot of Lincoln's crying is due to normal baby issues and that is wonderful to say! He is doing so incredible with everything he has been given to deal with! I cannot believe he is the same baby who was so sick on ECMO just three and a half weeks ago. He is my amazing little man!