Good Morning from the NICU

Late last night we decided to come to Peoria and camp out in Drake's room. We had been calling his nurse every couple of hours from home for updates and around 9 last night she said he had passed more blood and it appeared more concentrated so we jumped in the car and got here as quickly as we could.

We got a chance to speak at length with the nurse practitioner last night and she showed us his x ray from earlier yesterday afternoon and then another that they had taken late last night. She stopped short of diagnosing him with Stage 1 NEC but said that his x-ray is abnormal and does display tell tale signs of what can turn into NEC. So far he does not have any additional signs of the disease though, which is good. He is having longer pauses in his breathing but is still keeping his oxygen levels and heart rate high and did not set off his alarms all night. He is being treated as if he does have NEC with the hopes that the antibiotics will kill the bacteria that are causing the hydrogen bubbles that are shown on his x rays. We are thankful that the bleeding has stopped for now as well.

He had a third x ray this morning around 4:30 and it showed no changes meaning the bacteria haven't progressed any further in his intestines which is good. We are waiting for the doctor to make her rounds this morning to see if another x ray will be done today or if they will wait until tomorrow.

The little guy is missing having food in his belly and when awake is going to town on his pacifier or chews on his suction tube that it is in his mouth. The nurse practitioner kept telling us last night as he was flailing around that he doesn't look like a sick baby which is reassuring but they must treat him as one since the x ray is not normal. 

Keep fighting little buddy!! We keep giving him bedside pep talks. He just looks at us with these big eyes though and probably thinks we're crazy :) Drake says thanks for all the prayers, he can't wait to bust out of here and meet all his friends!