May 21 - Morning

08:53 -- I just called the hospital to check in on Max, since I won't get to the hospital until 10:00. He had a good night and was able to keep down the Enfacare calorie boost. His feedings have been increased to 45ML.

Phoo went to the hospital last night and spent a goodly amount of time with him. Max' intubation tube had started to come loose and they had to retape it. Phoo couldn't watch -- Max' face turned all red and he was doing the silent scream thing. It's hard to watch him try to scream and nothing comes out, and see him gag on the tube without being able to help him.... Max' blood gas at 21:00 had returned "good" but they didn't tweak his ventilator settings. The nurse this morning said they just tweaked, reducing his respiratory rate to 30, and were going to do another blood gas at 09:00. Again, it's baby steps in weaning him off the ventilator; they want him comfortable, but not too comfortable, and when his blood gas comes back "good" it means he has gotten used to the settings and it's therefore time to tweak again. I have no freakin' clue how long this tweaking will go on or what the magic numbers need to be before he's back on the CPAP machine. Well, patience was never my strong point.

I think I need to start publicly recognizing all the fabulous people in our lives, who have been so supportive and fantastic. But I fear that even if I start today and acknowledge a different person daily, I'll be blogging for the next 5 years. So there's my disclaimer and now I'm going to say that we are SO thankful for Meaghan's school. The director, the assistant directors, and Meaghan's teachers have been UNBELIEVABLE and without them we'd be yet another set of parents forced to bring their child to the NICU family room all day. It's not just having them, it's knowing that she is happy and loves being there. THANK YOU.