Lots of news

Sorry for taking so long to update but I had no internet access on the weekend.

Drew moved to out of the step down unit into his own private room yesterday afternoon. Jason and I are now completely in charge of Drew's care except for every few hours when a nurse comes in to check his vitals. He had a long night and had lots of trouble sleeping (so I did too, whew) he was still so uncomfortable. We kept him on Tylenol with codiene and that seemed to help but he still is not himself. One by one his lines came out he just had the chest drain, pacemaker wires and nose feeding tube left. We got the go ahead to breastfeed since he would not talk the bottle of expressed milk and he has decided to stage a feeding strike. We continued to try the breast which he refused and we managed to get him to take some milk from the bottle but most of the milk was fed via feeding tube. I could tell he was having trouble swallowing but not sucking and I think the tube in his throat was bothering him.

At 2pm they finally took out his chest tubes, we were asked to leave the room for a while so they could do what they needed to do. I insisted they take the feeding tube out with the knowledge that they would put it back in by 8pm if he did not eat. When we got back to the room all his tubes were out and he was sleeping as peacefully as I have seen him all week. It was such a nice feeling.

After a few attempts to breastfed with no luck we tried the bottle again and after a few minutes Drew sucked down an entire bottle. Hooray, I am so proud of my little guy and glad I insisted they take out the tube. I knew he could swallow properly with it in.

If he contiues to eat well, we will be discharged tomorrow or early the next day!!!! I know Drew will LOVE to be home and do very well when he is finally out of this strange place. NOw if we could just get a little smile out of him I will be thrilled. I think that is it for now.