After Matthew's surgery he has started to do really good. They were able to extubate him on Monday morning after his surgery. (surgery was Saturday) Since he has been extubated he has also been able to get off of quite a few other medications. He has been pretty alert and seems to be comfortable for the most part. We have been able to hold him for as long as we want and twice a day. It has been great to just be able to hold him and not have to worry about pulling his breathing tube out of his mouth. He seems to like us to hold him. He just snuggles right in and sleeps pretty soundly in our arms. I was able to hold him skin to skin today. They say that skin to skin is great for healing. I sure hope so.
It appears that Matthew needed this surgery to have his organs moved to the right spots and also to help his reflux. Since then he has made great strides in the right direction. I am optomisticly hopeful. We are afraid to get our hopes too high, but at the same time all the nursing staff and Doctors keep telling us how good he is doing. He made great improvements since surgery, first getting off the vent, then maintaining his oxygen levels on just a nasal cannula and now moving to a crib and out of the incubator.
He is still struggling with getting his stomach to work right. They say it could take awhile to get it working since it never really has had to yet. They are feeding him through a tube they put into his stomach called a G-tube. He is only getting very small amounts of food right now, about a teaspoon every three hours. Once he starts to empty his stomach then they can increase the feeds through his feeding tube. If he tolerates more milk ok then they will eventually start to feed him orally. They will have to work with him to get him to learn to suck. He has not been able to until now. He has started to suck on a pacifier a little bit. He will also have to learn to swallow, which he is working on with his saliva.
We are very happy with his progress this week. The Doctors still have not given us a timeline for going home, but they have suggested that if he keeps going in this direction he will be home before we know it. We sure hope so. Well, that is about all for now.
Love, Jaime
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