Graysen's First Bottle

Graysen was offered his first bottle yesterday. He did not do as well as I had hoped. He is used to getting all of his "feeds" through a feeding tube. We will be allowed to go home as soon as he learns how to eat, so I am anxious for him to learn. We will try another bottle today at 2:30 PM with an occupational therapist.

Other than the feeding issue, he is doing great. He recovered well from his surgery and had his pacing wires removed from this chest a few minutes ago. Besides the feeding tube, he is free of any objects going into his body.

Lee working with Graysen on oral therapy

Here is a picture of Lee doing Graysen's oral exercises. The goal of the exercises is to stimulate Graysen's mouth so that he will be ready for breast feeding when the time comes. We do the exercises three times per day and an occupational therapist does them with Graysen once per day. I cannot try to breast feed him until all of his feedings are compressed. Feeding is a three hour cycle. He had been being fed continuously, so he was feeding three out of three hours. He is down to feeding two out of three hours. (All food is fed through the nose at this time.) The goal is to compress the feedings so that he is fed thirty minutes out of three hours. He cannot feed by mouth until he reaches that goal.

Graysen is in step-down

Graysen was transferred to 7-C last night. This is where he will learn how to eat and become a normal baby. The doctors expect him to be in the unit for 7-10 days. He doesn't start eating right away. The first step is to compress his "feeds" and work with OT on oral stimulation exercises.

Graysen is doing great!

Graysen is doing well. They started giving him breast milk (through the nose) yesterday. He tolerated it very well and there are no concerns. They are hoping to remove the line going to the inside of his heart today. The line is placed in an atria to allow medicine to go to the heart quickly. After this tube is removed, all that he has left are belly button lines and a tube draining the outer area around his heart. He should be back to normal soon.

Caleb at Grandma's House

This is a screen shot from today's web-cam call with Caleb. Grandma put him in a box with wheels and can't get him to leave the box. He thinks that it is a choo-choo. He is happy and enjoying his time in Florida.

Getting better every day. . .

Graysen graduated from his breathing tube today. The doctors think he may be able to have his chest tube removed tomorrow. The removal of the chest tube is a big deal, because it means that he'll be able to eat for the first time. (Up until now, he's only been given nutrients intravenously.) If he continues to recover at this pace, he may be able to leave the ICU by next Monday. When he leaves the ICU, he'll move to a "Step Down" unit where he'll learn to be a normal baby, living without IVs, feeding tubes, etc.

Graysen is awake

Graysen opened his eyes periodically during the day yesterday and was very alert last night when we went to visit him. The picture above is from last night. He is still very groggy from the medications he received and is still swollen, so he looks very tired. Thankfully though, he is showing no visible signs of being in pain.

He doctors say that he is recovering well and may have his ventilator tube removed today.