Luke got his feeding tube out in the night last night! He looks so big sometimes, yet so little others. He now weighs 4 lbs, 6 oz! He is doing great, and we were able to talk with the doctor and nurse practictioner today about our discharge plan. They tested his hematocrit, and it was on the low side, so they were planning to do a blood transfusion before discharge. However, after some discussion with Andy and I (okay, I talked and Andy nodded his head a few times), we are holding off on that for now. He will get his hematocrit level checked in a week by our pediatrician and if it has gone down more, we will go ahead and take him in to get the transfusion. I truly want what is best for Luke, and there were a few factors that led me to feel like he didn't need one just yet. He made it this entire hospitalization without one, and his level was just borderline low.
Because of the couple bradycardia episodes and hematocrit level, they have decided that he should come home on monitors. Jordan and Drew did not come home with any, so this will be new to us. However, our twin nephews had them when they were babies, so we are familiar with the logistics of moving him around with them, etc. They said in a week or two, if he doesn't have any apnea or bradycardia episodes, he can get off of them. Also, he is getting his carseat test tonight sometime, so hopefully, he will pass that because the plan is to bring him HOME ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON!!! Eli has a school Veteran's Day program that we would like to go to, so we will go get Luke after that is over. Eli is SO excited about singing his "America" songs for this program. He tried telling us that it was weeks ago! He got confused since he has been practicing them in music for awhile. This morning at breakfast he sang me Lee Greenwood's song, "Proud to be an American". I may cry during it on Friday! :) I taught patients at Shriner's Hospital for Children that song, along with others, right after 9/11 and we performed them for the staff and community leaders. (sniff, sniff)
The kids are BEYOND excited to get Luke home. Tonight, we put together his swing and bouncy seat, and the kids sorted through the huge box of baby toys I have gotten from Brandy and Stephanie and picked out some of their favorites for us to wash up and share with Luke. All others, including all pink, is coming your way, Abby and Chris!! I figure that Luke will be more entertained by his siblings and their toys than he will a small rattle.... Tomorrow night, we make signs and blow up some balloons. We will do our best to capture the family "reunion" on Friday and share it with you all. Until then....
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