Quinten is Settled In at Children's Hospital

Well, we got Quinten settled in at Children's yesterday. He arrived at about 10:30am, and we all came up later in the afternoon to give him a chance to get evaluated by their doctors. He arrived on oxygen, but as part of the assessment they took him off the oxygen to see how long he could last until his Pulse Ox dropped. Guess what?? He's never been back on the oxygen!! He's been on room air this entire time - 24 hours and he maintains upper 90s%, which is just wonderful. God has answered prayers specifically for getting him off the oxygen. The nurses here joked that sometimes they just want that ambulance ride over to Peoria. He has certainly improved all ready and looks great!

Next step was to work on his feedings and make sure he can maintain his oxygen levels during those. He is doing well on those and Kevin and I have been able to give him his bottles at every feeding. We are even changing his diapers now and really caring for him. In the NICU every baby has their own private room so I am able to sleep in the same room with him, and get up with him for his feedings. He woke me up right on schedule last night just about every 2-3 hours saying "I'm hungry mama." Kevin was able to get one of the "Family Suites" last night too and was able to sleep in a real bed again and watch some TV(they are awarded each day depending on how sick your baby is).

We feel that although yesterday was an incredibly hard day, that Quinten is in the right place now to assess all of his medical needs. They are looking at anything and everything - he's having lots of bloodwork, EKGs, eye and hearing exams, etc...both for his current condition, but also looking at things associated with the Downs Syndrome. His care has been excellent. They have found a few other things that we are watching closely right now (e.g. jaundice, low platlet counts, some elevated number that is associated with kidney function, he has a very low resting heart rate - so he had an EKG done last night, and we found out that in adddition to the PDA with his heart, he also has a tiny VSD that wasn't told to us in BLoomington).

We meet with a series of specialists on Monday - nothing much happens on the weekends around here. So, it looks like we are here for the duration. I will continue to stay here - but tonight Kevin will go home to stay with the boys and get them back on their school schedule.

We even get to have some visitors today! We are allowed 4 people in our room at a time, so he is going to get some lovins' today and people are going to finally get to see him:) We are excited to share him with our loved ones.

XOXOXO,

Mandy



Vist Baby Chadwick's CaringBridge Blog: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mandychadwick