Happy Independance Day!!

Gabriel declared his independance from his warmer today, and from One more chest tube AND from the cpap. He still has one chest tube on the right. If I understood the Dr right (can't remember his name. He is the first year surgery fellow who took Dr. Little's place and I just met him today) the chest xray showed a little whiteness on the upper right lung - remember, he's had this in this spot before - that could be the adelectasis or a little collapse or a little mucous. He ordered the vibration treatment for the right lung and d/c the the vibration for the left.

Gabe is now in a big boy crib, and wearing clothes!! I took pictures, but left the camera upstairs (I know - sorry!). I'll get them posted tomorrow. Laura handed him over to me and got everything switched over. I went out and got him a mobile in anticipation of hopefully getting into a crib soon. He really seems to like it, and the nurses have a choice between Mozart, Beethoven and Bach to listen to!

What else - there's so much for today! Hmmm...oh yes - as I was walking in this morning, I ran into Laura as she was heading out for a break and she smiled and told me there was a surprise waiting for me. Gabriel had been taken off of the cpap, which he hated, and put on the vapotherm. As I understand it, this will be good for him b/c, well...as I just said, he hated it and it got him pretty worked up. The flip side is the cpap provides a little more support than the vapotherm, so he has to prove he can handle it. He didn't sleep much at all today, but still seemed comfortable and content and did not seem to be working harder. This evening, around 8:00 he was upset, probably overtired, and a little difficult to settle down. He got his breathing treatment and vibration, then his meal and settled down to sleep. I know that DH babies can tire out and are at higher risk for reintubation, so I hope being overtired tonight was more of a normal baby overtired and not a sign that he had to work too hard to breathe. I suppose if the latter is the case, we'll probably know before too much longer. Hopefully that is not the case, but if it is, we'll just have to remind ourselves of how far he has come and that he'll rest and try it again. Let's hope we don't have to worry about it.

Some other smaller big steps - they stopped the TPN (IV nutrition, that runs $500+ per bag) today. If they have be on it for too long, it is hard on the liver and Gabe has been a bit jaundiced the last several days, so getting off of that is very good for him. He is doing great on his feeds, which is why thay stopped that. B/c of that step, he doesn't have any more peripheral IVs, just the central line! Ok, I think I got everything, but I'll double check and post more tomorrow if I forgot.