Good Days Ahead

  So things have started to get a little more of a routine about them.  It is the best thing we could hope for up to this point.  The past couple of days we have woken up fairly early to get Vivie up and moving.  Then we head to the hospital to make rounds with the doctors and hear the plan of care for the day.  We get a little peaceful visiting time in before the droves of doctors, nurses and technicians all come in to the room to bother the poor little guy while he's resting.

  Yesterday, Milo's lungs showed some renewed fuzziness on the x-ray.  The doctors think it is mostly attributed to how sick he was and how premature he is.  Through some physical therapy applied by his nurse and respiratory therapist, he saw good improvement.  Milo also had two ultrasounds yesterday.  One was a cardiac followup (he looks great and everything is performing exceptionally well) with his friend John.  John is the pediatric specialist for echo cardiograms.  Milo has gotten to know his voice very well and seems almost soothed while John is working.  The other ultrasound was a new test.  The doctors wanted to look for fluid around Milo's kidneys that would help to explain some odd hormone numbers.  They found that everything was fine with this test as well.  He will have to have some follow up visits with an endocrinologist to follow some other hormone related issues that should work themselves out over time.  He is becoming more and more popular with the specialists at Rush. 

  We also finally introduced Vivie to her little brother!  It was such a special moment to see Vivienne's face as she first looked at Milo.  At first, she was a little concerned by the equipment that surrounded him, but she soon began looking at Milo and saying "Baby!  Milo!"  She wanted to hold the couple of toys that he had in his bed, but then gave them right back insisting that they were "Milo's".  We know that they will be great friends soon.


  A friend from high school who is a Child Life Specialist suggested that we get in touch with the specialists at Rush.  They were very helpful and informative about how we could best go about introducing Vivie to her brother in a place where she may feel frightened or worried..."doctor, ow!"  They also provided toys and books for Vivie to use while she was at the hospital. She actually ended up giving one of the toys that they gave to her to Milo.  She's such a good sister!  There is even a therapy bunny which comes to visit the children on the peds floor, but he was not available that day.  Vivienne can't wait to see Coco the Bunny on her next visit.

  Today was another milestone day.  Milo's lungs had improved from yesterday so they began to give him food through his feeding tube!  This was the first time he was actually able to eat anything more that a little milk on a swab stick.  They began with some pedialyte in the morning and let him rest for a few hours to make sure there wasn't a negative reaction with his digestive system processing for the first time.  After everything looked good, they put some milk in a syringe and began feeding him about 5ml an hour.  We were told by the surgeon that if he can eat for 24hours without any problems, he might get his chest tube removed!  Great news!  Something else taken away. 

  We have been able to hold Milo at least once a day now.  To say we are enjoying this would be a huge understatement.