Mission Accomplished, Day 60

Last Night's Weight: 4lbs 8oz (2040 grams)

He did it!

Lots of things have been happening in the past few days.

Austin has finally met the weight requirement to have his surgery, but we have to wait until the first week of December now. The surgeon is on vacation next week, so that pushes us to the following week. The surgery is scheduled for December 6th at 12:30pm! He will have a barium study done a few days prior to make sure everything is working before they reattach his intestines.

Since Austin has been doing so well, we were moved to the stable baby room although we are still on the North hall. Once the surgery is over and he recovers we will move to the South hall, which is the last stop before discharge. We can't get there soon enough! The only thing he really has left to accomplish is taking all his feedings on his own.

Not too thrilled about the move, he was the king of Nursery "B" for 8 weeks!

Today after his Monday labs, they decided to transfuse him again since he's been anemic for the past two weeks. It is amazing how quickly they perk up. He has been doing great with breathing and was turned down to .5 liter on his nasal cannula today. After this transfusion, I would expect he would be off of his cannula by the end of the week.


He's got his unicorn horn in ready for his transfusion. (Yes, that's an IV in his head. That is the easiest place to get an IV in the little ones, but usually the last place they try.)

Austin also had his PICC line removed today. They had hoped to leave it in until after his surgery, but it stopped working this afternoon. The nurses tried redressing it and flushing it several times, but it wouldn't stay open. In a way this is a good thing because having it in for long periods increases risk of infection.

Last week Austin had a routine head ultrasound (his third). Jacob and I have been keeping a little secret because we didn't want to worry anyone. We were told about a month ago that Austin had a grade I IVH or brain bleed. He was never really symptomatic. The results of the ultrasound last week show that his bleed is resolving and because it is a grade I he should have no lasting long term effects from it.