LA Line & Pacing Wires Out!

Here is Caelin without his pacing wires and LA line and in his bouncy seat for the first time! This really puts into perspective how little he is! We feel like he has grown since he was born, but it was nice to be reminded that he is still a little guy. He does have quite the little personality! He is very social like Mommy and Daddy- he talks to almost every person who comes into the room and strikes up a conversation with him. But he also has a temper... if he is grouchy or does not want to be touched, he will give a warning growl and then flail his arms up. He is also getting good at blocking what he doesn't want bothered & knocking away things that he does not want coming close to him. He is too cute!

Monday was a pretty mild day. Overall Caelin was in a pretty good mood but had moments where he was agitated. His feeds got bumped to 16 mL/ hr and his blood gasses where discontinued. The doctors also decided that since his LA (Left Atrial) line would no longer draw blood for labs, that he could get it removed. They also said he can get his pacing wires out! So all day yesterday we were anxious for him to get both of those removed; however, an emergency came up that required the surgeon's attention so Cael did not get them removed until today. But they are now officially out! :D To compensate for the LA line's removal, Caelin had to get a new IV in his leg for medications. He got this yesterday afternoon and it was the worse IV experience he has had yet. The lady woke him out of a deep sleep, was not very gentle with him, and poked him three times to find a good enough vein. So needless to say, Cael was incredibly irritated and sore after this.

In addition to getting his LA line and pacing wires removed, Caelin got what we are hoping to be his last dose of methadone, and got bumped up to 18 mL/hr on his feeds. Because he got the wires removed he got an echocardiogram to check the function of his heart and ensure there is no fluid around his heart. The echo looked great- no fluid and good function! His heart rate has been higher than it was on Sunday and yesterday. For the past two days his heart rate was between 110 and 135 and today it has been between 135 and 170. After looking at his statistics and charts they concluded he was a bit dehydrated and that could explain the increased heart rate. So they gave him fluids in his IV to help.

He had one episode of emesis (vomiting) yesterday and three today, not to mention an abundance of retching. Because of this, Mommy asked the doctor to go back down to 16 mL/hr on his feeds. Although Mommy and Daddy want nothing more for Cael to reach his goal of 20 mL/hr to get one step closer to coming home, we want more for him to get there on his time. If he is pushed there could be bad repercussions and we do not want to take those risks if his body just needs a little while longer for his digestive system to become efficient. On the bright side, yesterday Caelin drank milk from a bottle nipple and swallowed it without gagging! :) He has become a master with the binky tasting and is now starting to get used to the milk coming directly out of the nipple. Speech is continuing to work with him on this and hopefully he will continue to master each step toward oral feeding! We are hoping he will get to try bolus feeds next week (feeding by mouth in between his continuous tube feeds).