What a difference a day makes!

Click on the above picture to view the entire Day 8 album.

Just getting home from the hospital and wanted to update everyone. Aiden had a WONDERFUL day today. He's made remarkable strides in almost every aspect of his care. He had his IV in the neck removed and he doesn't have any more tubes except one for feeding. They turned off the Milrinone which was the medication for his heart and also weaned him off the nitric oxide which lowered the pressures in his lungs. They even changed him from a high flow oxygen to a regular oxygen and he's down to 1 little liter. They will probably wean that off tonight.

His breathing is MUCH BETTER. He's breathing about 30-90 times a minute (40-60 is normal). So I can relax. His repeat heart echo shows that his aortic valve is only mildly leaking so that's great news too.

Aiden spent the day sleeping, and sleeping, and sleeping. Occassionally when someone other than his mom touched him - he would squeal and cry like an ambulance siren. He has the most high pitched scream.... Jeff's never going to sleep through it :) He even smiled 3 times... which we realize wasn't purposeful but thought it was perfect for the situation. The pastor came by and said prayers with us and the cardiology service gave Aiden a nice keepsake too. It's a bead journal. Basically a string with his name spelled out in beads. They gave me a cup of all kinds of different beads and a chart that explains what each bead represents. Each different bead represents something that Aiden experienced (a unit of blood, a medication, surgery, ECMO, oxygen, a cardiac cath etc.). I sat today and and put the beads together. It will be a nice keepsake for him to show him everything that he's been through.

The doctors told us that we will be transfered to the step down unit tomorrow. We're officially the healthiest baby in that unit now.... no others are getting out of bed or crying. The babies there are so sick. I tried feeding Aiden breastmilk with a bottle today but he doesn't seem to know what to do with it. The nurses tell me that this is normal after surgery on the little ones. They will consult a feeding team of therapists to work with me upstairs.

So I'll be staying in the hospital with Aiden starting tomorrow until he comes home hopefully by the end of the week. Jeff will have to update the blog. Thank you to everyone who is praying for us or visiting, dropping off food or gifts. We are so blessed by this whole experience. It really puts things into perspective..... the only thing that matters is family and friends and health and happiness.

PS...thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of our other baby... Denver. We miss you buddy and soon you'll be home too! And thanks to Jeff's mom Dona for buying me a robot that sweeps my floors each day while I"m not home. Rumba is keeping my house in order through all of this chaos!