very close to our next big step

Charlie has had a great past few days. They have been able to make considerable decreases in his ventilator settings and there is talk (cross your fingers and knock on wood!!) that the vent may be gone in the next day or two!! He will then move to something called vapotherm that will give him some help inflating his lungs so that he does not have to work so hard right away. It will be much more comfortable though because it goes through his nose and not down his throat.

Feedings are also going really well. He is up to 9 cc's every three hours through his feeding tube. This is really only a 10th of what babies his age typically eat, but it is progress! They are increasing 1 cc every shift now and he is still handling it really well. 

It looks like Charlie will be moving after all as well. Things in the NICU have gotten a little busy lately. There was a set of quads born this afternoon and the CDH baby that they were expecting a couple weeks ago is truly on his or her way now I guess. And there is a set of triplets expected any time now as well. So Charlie is going to just be moved from one side of the room to the other. It will be a little noisier over there, but hopefully he is settled enough now that it will not irritate him too much.

Here are some recent pictures from the weekend. The first ones of his face show the newest Charlie phenomenon. It is called Harlequin - half his body turns red. He gets a very evident line right down the center of his body and it is not always the same side. It is just a nervous system reaction and nothing to worry about, but it is strange looking! :-)