Seth Gets to Eat

Seth eating some Pedialyte.

This is Natalie. It is my turn to be up at the hospital. After a restful night in my own bed--the first night since I had Seth last Friday--I was ready to go see Seth. I missed him. I hadn't been away from him more than a few hours since he was born, so the 20 hours I wasn't at the hospital was really hard.

Seth is doing amazing. As Randy shared in the last post, he has been losing lots of hardware! In fact, they just removed his arterial line--a line which measured his blood pressure continuously that was stuck directly into an artery. Luckily, it didn't squirt everywhere when the nurse took it out because I don't know if I could've handled that. She did have to hold his wrist for 15 minutes to make sure the bleeding was done. Seth was so still and good when she did this, we were impressed because sometimes he can have a little bit of a temper. Now, the only thing left poked in him is an IV (he has monitors stuck on him, but not poked into his little body).

Then, Seth was ready to try eating. All of his tests came back with perfect numbers. The doctor who was reading the labs said, "Look mom, he is already getting good grades." He was able to drink 1 ounce of Pedialyte. Not what he probably wanted, but he sucked it down in record time. If he can keep it down, they will try a few more ounces of Pedialyte. If that stays down, they can start using all the milk I have been pumping for him.

I am so glad he is making such great progress. He will probably be able to leave the CICU tomorrow and move to "the floor" as they call it around here meaning the Cardiac Ward meant for less critical patients. I am sad to leave the amazing staff around here, so hopefully we'll get to see some of them over the next few days.

I don't think this looks comfortable, but Seth loves to lay like this right now. Whatever keeps him comfortable.