Staying on track

I absolutely love the surprise (or fake surprise) that doctors show when they hear about Woody's recent run of good news. When we were at rounds today, the doctor asked what his FiO₂ readings were running, and when he got the answer (30s to low 40s) he did a mock double-take and said "is this the same baby?" It's like the classic trick of when you get handed the bill at a restaurant you just drop it like it burned you.

The NICU was pretty much going crazy around us today, too, so it was good that Woody's been relatively quiet and cooperative so that he doesn't contribute to the chaos. There are something like four babies being admitted this afternoon, and apparently a number of the other babies have gotten very sick, and so rounds got delayed a number of times while doctors and nurse practitioners ran around like Kermit escaping from a roving pack of cajuns. Nurse J told us a few weeks ago that a recurring nightmare of hers is waking up with the thought "OMG I forgot to feed a baby" and I bet it's days like today that do that.

Anyway, Woody is back over 1500 grams (and he got his feedings increased AGAIN), he continues to show good progress on blood gas tests, he has been relatively stable with fewer de-sat episodes (and they've been less severe, too, dropping into the upper 70s as opposed to the 50s), and is very, very cute. His leak keeps getting bigger, but that hasn't been too much of a problem either given that everything else is doing ok. But since he is still making good progress we're on track for extubation: if he has one more good day, he's starting the steroids on Thursday and he'll get the tube pulled Friday. Big days ahead. He may not be able to handle it, but it's about time to give him a shot.