11:15pm: Neither Kristen or I made it into the hospital today. Our lonely boy had to fend for himself but I think that we both needed a break away from the monotony of spending about 5 to 6 hours of our day driving back and forth to the hospital and visiting with Reid. We rarely have a chance to get things done... so tonight was our night. Kristen headed up to campus around 9 this morning and came home at 3 and worked until 10:30 tonight. I had a conference call with India at 8am and I am just now wrapping up work for the day. So, when we have time away from our normal routine... what do we do? Work.

Reid's O2 levels have gone back up to 55%. Not sure what is going on there, but they started another steroid today - prednisone. He is continuing to take the hydrocortisone, so I am not sure what their plan is for duration or weaning. Guess we will find out more tomorrow.

He had another eye exam today. He is officially out of the woods and will not have another follow up until he is 1 year old. Is that good news, or what?!? That was one of the reasons we went to Egleston - so I guess we can check that off our list of things to accomplish while we are there.

10:45am: Kristen and I went to visit Reid last night at 6:30pm and found Reid passed out in his swing (at that time, he had been in the swing for about 4 hours). He looked very peaceful but noticed that his oxygen requirements had gone up to about 55%. We also noticed that not only was he sounding a little wheezy, but he was also working a little harder to breathe.

We stayed at the NICU until about 10pm. Kristen had been holding him for over an hour, but it was time for us to leave and it was time for Reid to have his breathing treatments (CPT, aerosols, etc). We were anxious to see how much the treatments would help his respiratory condition and a little nervous as to what we had in store for the evening. Before we went to bed, we called to see how he was doing and he was already down to 40% O2. They were able to pull some mucus plugs out of his nose and also took the tube that was going through his nose into his stomach (and replaced it with one going through his mouth). His nose has been irritated and bloody over the past 3 or 4 days now - irritation from the tubes and high flow, so hopefully this will give him a break. They had originally taken the tube from his mouth and put it in his nose to help prevent the massive amounts of saliva that was being generated.

Long story short, his night went pretty well. He slept soundly and they were able to further reduce his O2 to 35%. His gas test showed CO2 levels of 65 (acceptable, but not great).

Tonight, they are going to start weaning the medicine he gets in the evening for his sleeping. He gets Ativan at 8pm to help with some anxiety and helps calm him down. Then at 9pm, he gets chloral hydrate to help him sleep. They think that he really doesn't need them anymore, so they are going to attempt to cut the dosage tonight and see how well he does. One of their thoughts is that the chloral hydrate suppresses his breathing --- preventing him from blowing off the excess CO2.

His feed are at 11cc per hour and is still on hyperal. I would imagine that he would need to get into the 18-20cc range before they cut the hyperal and in the 23-25cc range before he is considered to be at full feeds. Since the hyperal is the only thing going through his central line, once that ceases, they will hang "clear fluids" to drip through the line to keep it open. They will keep the central line in as long as possible in the event that he needs to be on any antibiotics or on the hyperal once again. It is a nice "port" to have access to in the event he needs it. The less IVs that he has to have... not only makes him a happier camper, it makes mom and dad happy too.

Kristen and I have a busy day in front of us, so we most likely wont get to the NICU until this evening.