9.7.08

Yesterday Chris heard Dr. Barden say he thinks Ethan has turned the corner. His vent and oxygen settings are lower today, which is a good sign. We haven't seen Barden today, but the nurse practitioner said that Ethan's xray looks much better. I assume that means the right upper lobe is opening up. His blood gas was ok, CO2 was 75 - better than 95! They are happy when it is in the 60's, but 70's are an improvement. Anyway, she said it looks the pneumonia is getting better. I really hope so! He's been fussy again today and has lots of secretions to be suctioned. The two seem to go hand in hand. But, the junk has to come out for him to get better.

I just looked at Ethan's board, and he is 5 lbs 10.5 oz! He has been growing a lot since he finished his course of steroids. Very exciting. He's still a long, skinny little guy!

I think Alli must be over 8 pounds by now. She has her checkup this week, so we'll find out. I know she probably looks small to other people, but she's looking huge to us! She's still a very good and very easy baby. I think she's in a growth spurt or something, becasue she's been wanting to eat every 2-2 1/2 hours sometimes. Especially at night... which doesn't make mommy particularly happy.

We had several visitors of note today. Aunt Liz came to see the kiddos this weekend. Also, it is Emily's 12th birthday today. She was finally allowed into the NICU to meet her cousin Ethan for the first time.

In other excitement, Tamlin is not a happy kitty. She has been unhappy with us since we brought Alli home. Not only are we gone a lot, we brought home a funny looking, pink kitten who likes to make funny noises. She typically won't stay in the same room with Alli. Now we KNOW that she is ticked off at us. We brought Alli into our bedroom the other morning (Alli has been sleeping in her own room - much better sleep for all!). the next night we were ready to get into bed, and we smelled something fishy. Well... actually that distinctive cat urine smell. After much searching, we discovered that Tamlin had peed on our BED! It went through all of the linens and into the mattress. The pet store and several internet posts recommended Nature's Miracle and it seems to have done the trick. Hopefully we got it all!