Ethan's Day 9 Update

And another day is in the books for our little guy. Today was one of our more difficult days, but it was difficult for Jayme and me, not for Ethan. Ethan is continuing on the path towards recovery, but his pace of improvement has slowed. He is still breathing fine, and we found out for sure, that the PDA valve in his heart we were concerned about has closed completely. This is great news. In addition, Ethan is now completely off his IV, which is also good news. That means all his sustenance is coming from his bottles now. Tomorrow will be another big day for him, has daddy will be visiting him in the morning to say some prayers, as the doctors perform his circumcision.

The hang up that we are having is that he is not yet putting down a full 2oz bottle just yet. Tonight for example, he only downed 1.5 oz in his allotted feeding time. Although the numbers aren't bad, they aren't yet where the docs want him to be. So now the game plan has changed. Right now he still has a feeding tube, and they are using that tube to feed him whatever portion of the 60ml he is not eating through the bottle. Tomorrow, they plan on removing the tube, and letting him eat just from the bottle. If he does not drop weight, then it is still possible that we could get him home on Monday. If he does drop weight though, they will reinsert the feeding tube, and we will have to wait a few days until his eating picks up. Obviously, we are a little bummed that he may not be coming home as soon as we had hoped, however, the most dangerous of his problems, the PPHN, is now resolved, and his lungs are now well developed. Although their is some frustration and disappointment that we are dealing with right now, at the end of the day, we all feel quite lucky that in a few more days, this will all be behind us. That thought, and all of your support, has allowed for us to keep our spirits high.

Until tomorrow night all.

Eric, Jayme, and Loryn Steinbach