No More CPAP

Today at 3:00 pm we had a celebration in the NICU. Ethan was taken off of CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure--on Sydney below) and put on a Nasal Canula (below). This is a big step for his progression and a big step toward our being able to hold him. We could hold him as early as tomorrow morning. We are waiting now to see if they will remove the tubes from his umbilical cord. If they do, we will cuddle him so much tomorrow. This was my first look at his face. I only saw his back when they put him on my belly for only a few seconds, so we were excited to find out that he is cute!!

This is the first good shot of his cute little right foot that is turned in. This is most likely the position he took inside my body that made his foot turn. Poor guy was pretty squished in there.

This is their first efforts to get his foot to straighten. They are trying to prevent him from doing what he did above (Ethan's indian style) in order to give his foot room. He didn't like this--he is happy in his squished position. We will meet with an occupational therapist to see about a splint while he is here. The doctor in the NICU said that a splint may be all he needs. She was able to move his foot toward straight pretty easily today. We were excited for the news. We knew about it on my 24 week ultrasound, but it looked a bit worse when we saw it.

As for Sydney, she could be on the same Nasal Canula tomorrow. She is still on CPAP at the moment, but doing really well. There is a chance we'll hold her tomorrow too, but I'd expect later in the afternoon. She has been about 12 hours behind him in progression. Funny, since she led the way out...