day 95

Day: 95
Weight: 6lbs 1.9 oz (some of that may be fluid from the surgery, but either way he broke the 6lb mark!!)

Pierce is recovering well and was able to move back to NPCN early this morning. We really couldn't have asked for a better recovery. In fact, because of a big steroid boost before surgery (preemies who are on steroids for a long time require a "stress dose" of steroids because their bodies have a hard time coping with stress and don't produce enough cortisol to deal with the stress), Pierce has been on 21% o2 and 2 liters. He has had little to no spells in the past few days. In fact, he's never done this well in his entire life! It's so nice! I keep reminding myself that he may slide backwards a little bit after the steroids are out of his systems, but then again, Pierce is always known for surprising us, so maybe he won't?

So overall, Pierce has had a nice recovery. He's still pretty uncomfortable and agitated by the puffy eyes and those awful eye drops he receives every 3 hrs. It's so hard to see him upset. Perhaps the hardest thing of all is leaving him at the hospital, coming home and wondering if he's upset and if anyone is caring for him. But we love our nurses and know that they are doing everything they can to care for him and I feel truly blessed by the many wonderful ones that God has placed in our lives.

We are so glad to be back in Progressive. I think it's because we know that we are just a few steps away from going home.

The biggest things on the agenda are to:
1)get him up to 8 bottles/day (Before surgery he was taking 4 pretty well. They'll resume bottle feeding as soon as he is more alert and it looks like he's active enough to take them),
2) switch him over to "chronic settings" on his cannula. This will be 100% o2 on .5 liter or .25 L. He can go home on these settings as soon as he's tolerating them well,
3) and to avoid any surgeries (praying, praying, praying for no shunt) or infections

Please continue to pray for Pierce's brain scan on Monday. Pray that his ventricles will be much smaller in size and that he will not require a shunt. We know that our God is able to heal Pierce and we are trusting in His goodness during this difficult time of waiting.

Thank you all for walking this journey with us.

Much love,
Lindsay