Closer and Closer

Noah at 11 days old. He sleeps so peaceful most of the time. Obviously these are from before they took the oxygen completely off.

Noah after his bath at a few days old. He's so much cuter with nothing on his face.

Sleepy baby

Today the developmental pediatric doctor came in around 8:00. He did order a swallow study to see what is going on with Noah and his eating. He was able to feed him and see exactly what he does. The swallow study will be done Friday morning sometime...I'm not sure on the exact time yet. They do want me to be there for it, so I will have to find out tomorrow while I'm there when it will be exactly. They did some more blood work today as well. 2 of the tests they did yesterday came back a little higher than they wanted them so they wanted to re-check them today. It had something to do with the liver function, but I don't remeber what they were called or the details. I'll find out tomorrow how the ones from today were. They are testing all sorts of things for metabolic levels. The swallow study will determine if he will need the feeding tube short term, longer term, if he's actually able and should be drinking out of a bottle now etc. If he needs the tube short term he will stay with the ng tube he currently has, if he needs something more long term, they would have to put in a g tube. I am familiar with g tubes from working at daycare with 2 different little girls. His circumcision has been scheduled, although I'm not exactly sure when yet, and his hearing test has been scheduled...again, not exactly sure when yet. Those are the last 2 major things other than the swallow study that have to be done before we are discharged from the hospital. The doctor did tell me that she wants me to be familiar with the ng tube. That means knowing how to put it in, take it out, check to make sure it's in the correct place etc. Tonight before his 5:00 feeding we gave him a bath. I was able to help some with getting the tube back in and I got to see what it sounds like to check the tube placement. It has to be down far enough in his stomach...not up by his lungs. It's all very interesting to me. Obviously, as anyone would do, he cries and screams when you put the tube in. The nurse said she was very surprised at how calm I was during the whole thing. She said most parents freak out some when their child screams like he does, but I guess I was just as calm as could be. I guess my outlook is, in order to get him home, I have no choice, so I HAVE to learn how to do it and I'm just ready for him to be home and relax some. I will have to do laundry before he comes home because I don't have hardly any sleepers left. I have a few clean ones left here and a few at the hospital, but for the most part, he's pooped on almost every single one of them! (surprise surprise I know) My hope is that we will be able to be discharged sometime between Friday and Sunday, but we will see. The doctor said even though she has no definite date for me yet, she wants me to have the tube down by Friday...I'm assuming just in case and as long as everything comes back ok on the swallow study and they don't have to do anything else such as the g tube, we may be able to leave Friday...but who knows. It will all make sense to me later I'm sure...once we finally know more things. I'm just glad we are getting closer everyday!