Day 118

Tucker is doing well. The doctors actually mentioned the word "home" the other day. Tucker will be home around Christmas time (hopefully), but the fact that they want to meet with Chris and me to make a "plan" is so exciting. We will meet with the pulmonologist (lung doctor-Dr. Thomas), b/c he is the one who will decide when Tucker can come home. Also, he is in charge of choosing Tucker's nurses for at home, and getting all of his equipment in order. Dr. Thomas will see Tucker for as long as he has the trach-about two years. Today the doctor moved Tucker's rate down to 40 breaths a minute. They cut back on his blood gas tests-only once a day instead of twice a day. They are going to try to wean Tucker more aggressively-moving him down and seeing how he deals with it. A rate of 40 is a pretty high rate, so hopefully he weans down soon. The eye doctor saw Tucker Tuesday-his ROP has regressed-yay! So he only has to get an eye exam every 4 weeks instead of every 2 weeks. His eyes are fine. The occupational therapist is going to try to nipple feed Tucker today-let's see how he likes his bottle. He used to love it, so our hopes are high. I have gotten good at feeding him via g-tube, so he'll get fed either way. Last night, his nurse said, "you changed him and fed him-why am I even here?" She was kidding around with me-she knew I wanted to help out. Feeding him in his g-tube is actually much easier than feeding him in his bottle. Tucker is asleep everytime I go to see him! I asked his nurse what would be a good "awake" time, and she said feeding times. So I went twice at feeding times, and he slept straight through my visits and the feedings. He is so bad! Of course, sleeping is wonderful b/c it helps him to grow. He weighs a little less than 8 pounds-he lost about 8 ounces after surgery, and he is slowly gaining it back. He looks longer and slimmer-more like Chris, really. About the house-we bought a house last Friday! So we are excited, except there is so much left to do on it (it is a 50-year old house). We have painted walls, pulled up carpets, ripped out the bathroom fixtures, and more. This weekend we are putting in laminate wood floors and hopefully getting the bathroom together. I think Tucker is getting better b/c now he knows he'll have a cute house to come home to. He is getting excited-I can tell. We joke that we have to be nice to Tucker, or he might decide not to come home. So we'll see how everything goes.