Sugar Bear

Sugar Bear works great as a visor to block some of the bright fluorescent light so Chase will open his eyes.....in case you're wondering why the bear on the head :) We also have fun propping him different places around Chase. Sugar Bear was given to each baby by a family who's son was comforted by him while once in the NICU. I think he comforts Chase too. Chase looked great again today! Chris and I changed out his trach for the first time with the help of the nurse. It went well and Chase was as calm and helpful as ever! We're already getting more comfortable with it, and we're learning all the tricks, like swaddling Chase tight in a blanket so he can't use his arm and hands to help pull out the trach before we're ready :) (like he did the first time).
The resident said today's chest x-ray looked better than yesterdays. He thinks the diuretics helped. They've ordered a swallow study for this week to confirm weather or not Chase has reflux. He's tolerating the continuous feeds much better than the every 3 hour feedings. If Chase does have reflux and they're concerned about aspirating, they'll have to put in a G-tube; which I don't know enough about to explain well, but it would be another surgery and would allow him to get fed directly into his stomach. Hopefully that can be avoided, but if not, we'll deal with it. They said he's not gaining weight as fast as they would like, which was a surprise to us. And they can't really increase the amount of food if he doesn't tolerate it. I tell ya, if it's not one thing it's another! Ah, the complexity of medicine and the human body, which at one time I found fascinating....now I find frustrating!! So Chase won't get the bottle feeding trials until after the swallow study...but he's still sucking away on his binkie!
On our way out of the hospital tonight, I ran into an old classmate from Clinton I grew up with. He just had a baby girl last night who is also in the NICU. Keep Baby Austin in your prayers!