Slow and steady

Andrew's still improving!

He's completely off the epinephrine now, so that's good. They're slowly weaning him off some of the other stuff now, too. They took him way down on the Lasix, which is a diuretic, since he's urinating so well. He actually has lost almost a half liter of fluids since the peak, which is great - he looks much less like a linebacker and more like a normal newborn now. :)

They think he may be able to go to a standard ventilator tomorrow, that his lungs will be healthy enough for that. The oscillator's easier on him, but he can't learn to breathe on his own while he's on it. If that goes well, they may start feeding him breast milk the day after.

Kidneys are looking better - the creatinine levels have peaked and are starting to come down.

One possible fly in the ointment is his heart. It seems that when they allow his heart to beat on its own, the two sides are not beating in synch. So they're keeping him on the pacemaker for now. The hope is that it's just the swelling around his heart that's causing the problem and it will go away on its own. Worst case is, they'll have to implant a pacemaker in him long-term, but that's only a possibility at this point.

Still, mostly good news today! He got his first sponge bath! They never finished giving him one when he was born because they were more concerned with getting him breathing. (No new pictures because I left the camera at the hospital with Teresa.)