A big day

Today when we walked in to Woody's room we saw them removing his isolette and replacing it with an actual crib. This was not something we were expecting, but we are very happy about it nonetheless. Instead of having a plexiglas shield constantly between us and our kid when we visit, now we can just be right there next to him. This is, I am sure, another one of those situations where most parents can sympathize but not even really understand. After all, most kids never go to an isolette, and being in a crib is just so normal for the rest of you. But for us, it's day 53 and for the first time ever, he's not in the isolette. It's another great sign of progress.

The decision has been made, subject to change, of course, due to circumstances: Woody will be extubated later this week. He is making huge progress in all of the three requirements (weight gain, pressure requirements, oxygen) except for the O₂ needs, and even in the case of the oxygen we are thinking that he looks worse than he actually is, because he's been annoyed so much by the tube and by the fact that he's still a little constipated. Perhaps moving out of the isolette will make things a little more interesting for him, too. He seems to be pretty interested already in what's going on around him; he was wide awake when we first saw him.

My dad (Granddad Hobbs) and Sheri (we're still in discussions as to what to call her, she's leaning towards "Mimi", a term that she had for a grandmother of hers a long way back) have been visiting the last couple of days, which has been a lot of fun. They last saw Woody when he was under two weeks old, and he looks amazingly different from then. Not only is he about three times as heavy now (he had dipped down to about 420 grams at his lightest) but his skin looks normal, no longer red and thin and almost sticky like a salamander's. They will be heading back tomorrow after we have a fun barbecue at the Stiffler/Korfhage grandparents' farm near Red Wing tonight.