Updates

Alrighty, so it's been a few days since I updated about Evan.  Mostly because it's been hectic, and my computer decided to quit on me again.

That being said, here's the latest news:

As you will recall, Evan had his g-tube surgery on Tuesday.  Wednesday, he was still recovering, but the surgeon decided to try him on a small amount of Pedialyte, to see if his tummy had recovered enough for him to tolerate feeds.  Unfortunately, he didn't tolerate it very well- he spit up the entire amount.  So it was back to relying solely on IV fluids.  Evan was pretty fussy Wednesday, feeling a little beat up, which I can't blame him.... surgery is tough, and the day after HURTS.  So I held him as best I could with the new wound on his belly, and kept him company throughout the day, and evening.
Thursday, he was a new boy.  He smiled again, grabbed his bear, and just generally felt a lot better.  We went a lot longer without pain meds- most of the day, actually.  He even started kicking some.  I held him more, getting the right position to hold him between the new incision, trach, and ventilator tubes and IV.
Friday, we could tell Evan was feeling up to his old self, mostly.  He had a poopie diaper, he was playing and kicking, and REALLY enjoyed snuggle time with Momma.  We decided to put him on 5 ml of formula through his g-tube over an hour to see how he would tolerate the continuous feed.  He did awesome.  So yesterday, we bumped it up to 10 ml per hour.
Oh, and Friday, his doctor decided to lower the constant pressure Evan's getting through his ventilator.  And his CO2 levels have been the best EVER lately- which really excites us.  We're hoping to get back to some of his normal routine tomorrow- and hope that he'll start taking a larger feed soon.  Sometimes you just have to go slow with these things.  But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be able to start trying out the trach collar this week- a trach collar is where they take him off the ventilator completely, and allow him to breathe on his own with no assistance.  The plan is to try it for about 15 minutes the first time, check to see how he's doing, and then the next day move up to an hour.  If we see he's doing okay with that, we'll continue to try it every day for longer and longer, until he goes the entire day without ventilator assistance, and just have him on it at night.  Then, we'll start weaning him off the ventilator at night.  Once we're down to just a couple of hours a day on the ventilator, we'll completely take him off.
We might need some supplemental oxygen, but that's fine.  If we can just get him loose from the ventilator would put me on cloud nine.
So here's hoping!

Oh, and I can't neglect sharing some cuteness with NO TAPE on his face.  :-)

"Momma, I sure like snuggle time."

HEY!  Who wants to PLAY?!?