9:15pm: Sorry for the lack of posts today, but it has been a busy day. I finally got a chance this morning to do some much needed yard work in preparation for the spring weather. I have been dying to get outside - it is my way of relaxing and getting my mind off of things. Kristen kept busy and got some house cleaning done - it seems that our weeks fly by and we have little time to pick up after ourselves, so the house looks good.

We got to the NICU about 2 this afternoon and spent most of the day/evening with Reid. He was sleeping when we got in, so we kicked back in the chairs and had a quiet afternoon until Reid woke up. Kristen was able to get some reading done on her new "Kindle" and I was able to surf the web for a little bit on my phone. When Reid woke up, we were pleasantly surprised to have the smiling/laughing baby that we had last week back in our lives. Since surgery, he has been so drugged up and in pain, that we thought it was going to be forever until we saw him in this good mood again. I had him on my lap for a good 45 minutes and he would look at me... look at Kristen... we would laugh at him and he would "laugh" right back. When we put him back in the bed, he was kicking his legs, swinging his arms and just moving around like a normal baby would. I assume he isn't really in pain anymore and his range of movements is definitely getting better. One other thing that was nice to see was that towards the end of our visit, he got uncontrollably upset... his pacifier didn't seem to help, rubbing his head didn't seem to phase him... and when all else failed, Kristen picked him up and he *immediately* silenced. She rocked him for a few moments, put him back in bed, and he was relaxed. She has the touch! And the most important thing to note is that he is appreciating the touching and holding that he always associated with negativity.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, he got a new bed the other day. This bed is HUGE -- probably 3 times bigger than his previous one. It's nice as we now have room to set his stuffed animals, mirrors, toys, etc in... and the best part of all is that we can put his play mat in the bed and lay him on it. We have been told by physical therapy that he needs to move on past doing range of motion exercises that we have been doing over the past three weeks. He now needs to be able to reach for things, swat at things, and be used to being sat up. So, this mat will work good for him in that he has things dangling above him that he can reach for.

His CO2 last night was a "so-so" 60 - he has had better gasses over the past few days. He did not get weaned on his pressures but the doctor plans on weaning him down to 6 liters on Monday assuming his gasses stay good/consistent. The changes for today included: increase to 24cc of milk every hour; removal of hyperal and lipids and now on "clears" until he is maxed out on full feeds (which was previously 28cc); all of his medicines are now going through his g-tube; and upgraded to a new diaper size. Tomorrow, he will be further weaned on the prednisone steroid. Oxygen hovered in the 40-50% range today.

Anyway, it is nice to have a happy baby again. We are still getting a lot of nurses, therapists and doctors popping their head in the room congratulating us and commenting on how well he is doing. This gives us a big sigh of relief --- that's for sure! Well, it is time to start winding down for the evening, so I will wrap this note up. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Oh.. and one more picture. 4.95 kg or 10.9 lbs. Mr. Chubby Cheeks: