Ethan's Day 7 Update

1 week old, and better every day. For the first time since he was born, there were really very little changes.

He is still under the heat lamps to break apart his bilirubin, but his count is declining. They are hoping to remove him from the lamps tomorrow.

That will leave us with only two steps remaining to get him home. First one is that they want him taking 2oz from a bottle. Right now he is at 20ml, and at 11:30p tonight that will up to 25ml. With 60ml = 2oz, that means we are almost half way there in only 1 day !!! The other good thing about him taking in more formula, is every other feeding, they are also reducing his IV volume. He is at 13cc now, and they keep kicking that down by 1.5cc at a time.

The second step will be for him to pass his final echo, and his hearing test. Although these both sound easy, the hearing test has me a tad concerned. Infants who have had PPHN sometimes have hearing troubles as a result. I am not sure of the science behind it, but this is what I have read, and been told by the docs. Then in addition to that, Ethan's daddy has very poor hearing on top of that, so I am praying that I did not pass down those traits to him.

If all continues to go well, and right now all involved believe it will, our little monster will be home with his family on Monday.

Tomorrow is another day, and I will again provide another update for those who are interested. Thanks again everyone, for all of your continued support.

Eric, Jayme, and Loryn Steinbach