5 weeks old

It's hard to believe that our son turns 5 weeks old today - my how time has flown by! This has been a busy week for us so I'm sorry for the long delay in blog updates. We had a great time Wednesday night visiting baby Shelby and her parents at the RMH. Ethan slept most of the time we were there and Shelby just wanted to play the whole time. We managed to wake Ethan up for at least a few minutes to get some cute pictures of the two of them together, which I'll try to post soon.

Speaking of Shelby, her surgery went well and recovery's going alright. They have a minor setback with her left diaphragm being partially paralyzed, either from the surgery or from the central IV line they put in her neck. Worst case scenario, another surgery will have to take place to work on the diaphragm and best case scenario, the problem will fix itself in time. So please keep her and her parents in your prayers. For more information on her, please visit their family's blog: www.caringbridge.org/visit/shelbyglover.

As for Ethan, we went for our first follow up cardiologist appointment on Thursday. Ethan's cardiologist - Dr. Robinson - also has a clinic at WakeMed Hospital which is only about 20 minutes away instead of UNC being an hour away. Ethan got all his vitals taken (blood pressure, pulse ox, weight and temp) and everything is looking great. He also had an echocardiogram (ultrasound of his heart like we did 2x while I was pregnant with him). Dr. Robinson was very pleased to see that everything is working great. He told us we can cut back on some of his meds - give Lasix only once a day instead of twice and stop the Prevacid for reflux (only use it again if he seems to need it). By next month's appointment, we will probably be able to stop the Lasix completely, and also probably stop one of the 2 heart meds! We can also stop keeping the pulse ox on him all night long, and just do one spot check each day (usually when he's asleep).

Thursday night we went over to see Ethan's cousin's - Rebecca and Marissa - that live in the first part of our neighborhood. Rebecca turned 5 that day so we had a private little party for her. The big party with all her friends and the rest of her extended family is today (Saturday) but we didn't want to expose Ethan to all the possible germs of other kids so we're staying home.

Friday, the home nurse came to do vitals. Ethan now weighs 9lb. 4oz. and is looking great. His pulse ox sats are looking good - staying in the mid 70s where they should be for an HLHS baby. We will have the home nurse come twice next week as well, then probably cut back to once a week. Ethan's also doing great with eating - he's taking a whole ounce more per feeding (and sometimes that's not even enough!) than he did when he came home last Saturday (hard to believe we've been home a whole week already!).

Also on Friday, my parents moved out of our house and into their new house in Wake Forest (about 15 minutes away). So, needless to say, things were quite busy this week around here. For those who don't live locally and may be reading this, we had a big thunderstorm last night (Ethan's first!) with lots of rain and even some tornado warnings nearby but we're all safe. We got lots of rain, which we desperately needed because of the drought we've been in this summer. Now it's bright and sunny and slightly cooler today. Glad to finally be getting into some cooler, fall temps!

The only prayer requests at this time for Ethan are just that he continues to have good oxygen sats and that he continues to gain weight.