Knock, knock, knocking on a wooden door.

Well.

Christa is still a bit under the weather but definitely on the mend. It was only one nurse on one shift who told her she ought to go home and spare the hospital's staff and patients her cold, she's been able to see Ford every day since. I haven't gotten sick yet at all and Ford seems to be doing much better.

Today was an exciting day.

First off. There is some disagreement as far as his 'long term' stay at Children's is concerned, but it is mostly a bed dispute between the NICU and the cardiology ward upstairs. Neither of them seems to want to loose a bed to him. So while cardiology is saying he's fine in the NICU, he can stay there until he's ready to be discharged, the NICU is pushing to move him upstairs so they can use the bed for another baby.

In some ways he's better off in the NICU because someone is watching him all the time, but the down side is the cramped quarters and touchy nurses who panic at the slightest sign of a deterioration - and fail to give him the benefit of the doubt, which i think he really needs right now. Upstairs he'll get less attention but they will also give him a chance to prove that he can, in fact, cope with a few episodes of mild desaturation without going into cardiac arrest and spare him the trauma of being put onto CPAP as an unnecessary precaution. If he is ever going to get out of the hospital he's going to need to demonstrate his ability to cope on his own, without monitors and sensors, etc. So it's a mixed bag for us. Obviously we want him home, but obviously we don't want him home while he's still in a (relatively) fragile place.

In other news, the cardiologist on duty this week - Dr. Human (not to be confused with Dr. Vulcan) - made some changes this afternoon that seemed to stir the pot a bit, at least as far as the NICU nurses and neonatologists were concerned. He discontinued Ford's respiratory support and also requested his feeding be moved from NJ (intestinal) to NG (stomach). Since these are all things that need to happen eventually, we are happy they have happened. But Ford has had a hard time with both of them in the past and each time they tried and failed they seemed to temporarily set him back in his recovery. We are both wary-of and excited-for the moves made. So far things seem to be going really well. I should emphazise "so far" so I don't miss the opportunity to knock on wood. I think the longest he's lasted without breathing assistance is an hour, and its been about 10 now. He is doing quite well in terms of his oxygen saturation. His breathing is still a little quick, even at rest, but Dr. Human thinks that is just going to be the case with him, because he is fighting higher than expected pulmonary blood flow (via the shunt), on top of weak cardiac function, on top of cold congestion. He doesn't seem to be overly concerned.

As far as the feeding goes, Ford had progressed over the last two days to getting about 5-10mls of milk orally (via a syringe), which was basically therapeutic stimulation for his swallowing reflex, and the switch to his stomach (via continuous nasal drip) has gone really well. He hasn't had any regurgitations since they changed it over earlier this afternoon and he even had a big burp while Christa was holding him. If he continues to tolerate it through the night and into tomorrow they will try to transition him onto bolus feeds, which means getting larger, concentrated doses over shorter periods of time. These are the final things we need to resolve before he's let loose, so if they continue to progress this smoothly we might have him home sooner than we're expecting (which still might be a few weeks - knock wood). He is gaining charm, weight, and stamina, as well as a passionate tendency to scream and scream and scream. Go Ford!