Monday, August 24, 2009

2.5 Liters

Gaines continues to improve and Beau and I are still in awe of how far our little Gaines has come in the last few weeks. After weeks and weeks of slight progress and moving forward only to take a few steps back, Gaines seems to be only moving forward and doing it faster than we have ever seen. The big news of the day is that they turned him down to 2.5 liters. Right after they did it, his oxygen had to be bumped up to about 60% but he quickly got used to it and came back down to 50%. It seems to me that he is doing better going from 3 to 2.5 than he did going from 4 to 3.

The plan is to let him stay at 2.5 for a couple of days and if he does well, then we'll try to turn him down to 2 liters. That's super exciting to me because while we'd like for him to go home on less than 2 liters, he can't go home on any more than 2. So, at least he will be in a go home range.

As far as bottles go, today Gaines was taking bottles every other feeding and he took every one of them. The plan for tomorrow (probably) is to let him try bottle, bottle, feeding tube...and so on. Keep in mind that this time last week we were talking feeding tube surgery. Gaines had never taken a whole bottle and today he's taking half of his feedings by bottle...on less oxygen. This is so awesome and just pure evidence of God answering prayers.

Beau and I talked today about needing to start the search for the right person to take care of Gaines at home while we work. For some reason this really freaks me out. I think I'm just so afraid of getting things ready for Gaines to come home.

I'm terrified of getting my hopes up of him coming home soon (in a month or so) and then things stalling or going backwards. Part of it is also fear of actually having him home. There is nothing I want more than to have him home but do you have any idea how scary its going to be? I think I might be getting ahead of myself here...he's still got a good ways to go before we even start to think about home. See! I'm starting to get my hopes up and I KNOW that I shouldn't.

In Reed news, he's got a couple of new tricks that he's working on. I heard him saying a bunch of letters last night so I started singing the ABCs and he filled in some of the letters. Also, he's trying to count on his fingers. He's got 1, 2 and 8,9, 10 down. We've just got to work on the middle numbers. I'm telling y'all...genius.

Oh, and Reed made Beau's year tonight. Beau was watching football and they discussed it for a second and then Reed said, "I want to watch footsball". It came out slow and broken but he said it several times and each time Beau had a giant smile on his face.

That's about it for now. Please keep praying for Gaines. He's doing so well. Please pray that it continues.

Love to all,

Brittany

8 comments:

Only the Sheppards said...

I'm so glad to hear how well Gaines is doing! You guys are headed into the homestretch!

Please talk to your social worker about getting nursing care if available. With him coming home on O2 he may qualify for a home health nurse to stay with him while you guys work. It's worth a shot! If they tell you no at first, ask again. Getting services once you're home is all about persistence...

Diana said...

Yeah! Go Gaines! Praying that you guys are all home together soon. Also praying that you find the right loving person to take care of your sweet boys.

Unknown said...

Sounds like your little man wants to come home as much as you want him home.... I bet he's heard that he can't go home on more than 2 liters, and he's making sure he gets to go home soon!

And how about Mr. Reed?!?!?! How unbelievably cute is that?!?!?! But the question remains - did he get to watch "footsball" with his daddy? AND, is he rooting for the right team?

The Rathmell Family said...

I'm so happy to hear this great report on Gaines. Reed sounds like such a fun little man, I know he is a great big brother.

Susan Reneau Rathmell

jensoup said...

I understand not wanting to get your hopes up(we were there) but those preemies they do all of a sudden"get it".In one week our boy went from "maybe he'll go home in a few weeks" to ,on Thursday them saying "bring you carseat tomorrow if he passes he can leave Sat"...say what??? ...and yes we were TERRIFIED to take him home-but it was great!

Thomas and Jamie said...

That's such an AWESOME praise! Thank you Lord for your continuous blessings on this sweet family!!

And, way to go Reed! I know my hubby can't wait for our little boy to want to "watch footsball" so I can imagine the look on daddy's face when Reed chimed in with excitement!!!

The Williamson's said...

I'm so happy to hear that Gaines is doing so well and I will continue to pray for more progress. Yay!

Sarah said...

So happy to hear of Gaines' progress! We miss seeing you guys. :)