Back to Normal

It has been a few weeks since I have updated everyone on Nicholas. I am happy to report that our sweet boy has been feeling absolutely fabulous since his return home from the hospital nearly a month ago. He has been asking to do things that he refused to do while not feeling well: sitting up more, moving his legs and fingers, singing, playing, and expanding his vocabulary. He also enjoys getting out of the house for quick trips to my parents house or the store.

His heart rate has been awesome-better than before his hospital stay at 90-120 while awake and 70-100 when sleeping. I know that the switch from c-pap to bi-pap has helped with that because his body gets such good rest while on it. He is back to baseline, only needing bi-pap for sleeping, but he also has "rest time" in the afternoon where he wears his Pixi mask with his bi-pap on and watches a DVD in his room. He is all about being in his room now. I think he is a typical three-year-old in that respect. His oxygen levels have also been outstanding. We haven't seen his O2 levels drop below 94 since being home and his typical numbers are now between 98-100, which is higher than normal for him. He now gets his treatments (vest, cough assist, suction) three times per day. We stopped giving him liquid albuterol a couple of weeks ago as we don't feel that he needs it right now, but still have lots left over that we can use at our discretion.

We have been reading lots of books together and his new favorite is a book that his Aunt Jami & Uncle Kris bought him for Christmas. It's called Jingle and has an interactive dog that barks and makes sounds when I read certain lines in the story. He thinks it is so funny. He also likes playing with a magnetic Curious George game that Santa brought. His new cartoon obsession is Wow, Wow, Wubbzy. He asks to watch it about thirty times a day and is happy to re-watch the three DVDs we have of that cartoon over and over again.

We are currently in the middle of a bathroom re-model to better accommodate Nicholas. We have two bathrooms in our house and both are small. Small is probably an understatement, they are darn-right tiny. The main bathroom is the only one with a bathtub so we use it to bathe Nicholas and because he is growing so much, it can be a challenge to get him out of the tub and then maneuver around to open the door and get out into the hallway. So we decided to put in a pocket door that slides into the wall so that we have a lot more room to get Nicholas out. And since we had to tear out part of a wall, we figured we may as well update the mustard yellow (circa 1972) colored bath surround and linoleum floor with tile. It should be mostly complete by Sunday evening so I will post some before and after photos next week.

Nicholas is such a joy and blessing to us. We are beyond thrilled that he is back to his happy, sweet self and has been feeling so wonderful these past few weeks! Thank you to everyone who reads our blog and who keeps praying for Nicholas. We really appreciate it!