Sunday--Day 2 Post Op

Today was a quiet day in ICU. Gavin was very alert and peaceful and interested in looking at us and interacting in a subdued way. He sleeps soundly. He is not on any big pain meds. Just Tylenol every few hours. But he doesn't seems to be in a lot of pain.

I was a little disappointed in that I thought maybe we might get out of ICU tomorrow, but it's not looking that way. The only thing keeping him there (as I understand it) is his high blood pressure. Apparently all "Coarc" post-op babies take a couple of days for the blood pressure to normalize. His BP is now ranging in the 120s to 150s and they want it in the 90s preferably. He's on 2 blood pressure meds in his IVs and one orally. The goal is to get him off all the IV meds by slowly increasing the oral medication. When they tried to do this today (cut the IV med) his pressure spiked, so they had to increase it. So it's back to the drawing board in a way. But again, the doctor isn't worried about this. It's normal to have high BP because they've just fixed a kinked artery--so the blood flow is much stronger than it was and the body has to "aclimatize" so to say.

Gavin had his biggest fan club visit today--his brothers and sisters! I was so happy to see them too! We spent three great hours together! First they spent an hour in a really cool "Playroom" that is set up downstairs and staffed by Volunteers--there were crafts and a pool table and a giant chess set that we all enjoyed together. Then we took the kids by twos into the ICU to see Gavin. They were so cute with him and so interested in all the numbers and tubes they could see. Rachel was worried that he was getting to filled up with fluids--and it's true, he is retaining a lot. But that is pretty much unavoidable and he is on a drug to help with this too. After all the visits, they got to have an "exciting" dinner at the hospital cafetera of hotdogs, chips and cookies. (Tim had put a dinner in the crockpot before coming, but then the power went out due to a windstorm before they left so we just fed them here.)

In the lobby, someone we had met and befriended asked Elizabeth after her visit to Gavin: "Is your brother doing okay?" and she answered simply, "No. He's sick." She has been quite homesick for me, according to my mom who found her buried under a blanket in her room yesterday. But she and all the kids are being very brave. They know they are lucky that Gavin will be able to recover and come home so much sooner than their little niece.

Oh, the other big news of the day is that Gavin gets to eat again! He started out small--just 1/2 an ounce. But now he's up to 2 oz feedings! He is eating breastmilk by bottle for now so it can be measured. Maybe tomorrow he'll be able to nurse again!

On a seperate note--I am thinking a lot of David and Noel (Tim's brother and his wife) who are scheduled to go in to the hospital tonight to be induced with their first baby. I'm sending a prayer your way! Can't wait to hear the news!
*Heather
p.s. Hopefully we'll be able to add photos to these posts soon with Tim's laptop--but I don't know how to do it on these hospital computers.