Schoolin'

I've decided to go back to school...medical school no less. Well, that might be a *bit* of an overstatement...but given my lack of science-based education (I am a Communications major after all) this is about as close to medical school as I'm ever going to get. What am I talking about, you ask? Well I picked up a copy of "Newborn Intensive Care, What Every Parent Should Know" from the hospital today...I mean if every parent MUST know it then I suppose I should spend some time studying. It's actually a really great book, filled with easily digestible scientific info and explanations for all of the various ailments, conditions, procedures, personnel, etc. in the NICU. It's actually really helpful to translate all of the things we've been hearing for weeks now. So it only took me five weeks to seek out the information but that's OK. Other things were occupying my mind. Here's to continuous learning.

So Leo and I had more booby time today, this is definitely going to be work. Cue the weird lactation ladies. Sigh. But his breathing on the cannula is going really well, no big events. So at least one of the major problem areas appears to be improving. I think we can safely put Leo's problem areas into two main categories: Breathing (which is improving) and Liver/GI Track. As I've mentioned, his liver situation is a big mystery right now. He's clearly got toxins hanging out in his system but they're not sure what exactly is wrong and whether it's specifically a liver issue or something else. So they're doing a ton of tests right now and tweaking various things with his feeds and generally speaking scratching their heads. Hopefully time will fix it and his billirubin levels will start to go down. If they don't, though, the mystery will continue until they land on something concrete. The good news is that this mystery doesn't impact his progress in terms of moving down to the second floor or even going home. At least not right now.

Oh, and Leo's buddy Rowan moved down to the second floor today. Leo and Rowan are the same gestational age but Rowan came in at 28 weeks so he's a little further along. We're very happy for them and Rowan left Leo a very sweet note today letting him know that the second floor is really cool and he has something to look forward to. So Leo's the old man of his NICU room now. Hopefully not for long.