Day 96 (38/1)

7:20am – Phone Call: Dr Update

Dr Lipsky is back in the unit and called to give us an update early this morning. She said she had to strong arm Dr Ramsey to get Asher back in her care 😂

They’ve been able to wean Asher down to .5L/min @ 25% O2 for respiratory support. Almost nothing 🙌🏻

His feeding went really well yesterday! He took a bottle for every feeding over night with no issues!

He did receive a glycerin enema late this morning because they weren’t able to get it from pharmacy until it was closer to shift change. But he’s apparently been tootin’ like crazy 😬

Monica & I are scheduled for Monday to do an overnight stay at the hospital to make sure we can handle Asher being on monitors when he finally comes home…

Which is scheduled to happen next Thursday…

Dr Lipsky said pending a few “ifs” Asher is clear for discharge on Thursday!

Grandma Rebecca is coming up to help out Sunday so we can do our overnight stay and be with Aiden while we’re finalizing everything for Asher…

He’ll be coming home with a pulse oximeter and an apnea monitor. Dr Lipsky is sending him home with the apnea monitor because of his need to sleep prone…

His head wound from the “rubbing” is already looking better…

Asher had his weekly eye exam today and Dr Snyder made a comment that he shouldn’t be discharged because he’s not “out of the woods yet” with his vision…

But the unit cannot keep him and insurance will not allow him to stay for a “just in case” scenario…

They call these babies “eyeball hostages” because they get stuck in the NICU due to the eye Dr not clearing them. It’s mainly because they don’t trust parents to go to the weekly follow up exams. If parents don’t follow up with the weekly eye exams and baby goes blind because he was discharged early, it’s a HUGE liability for the eye Dr…

Which we understand. But, WE will be at every appointment…

Thankfully, Dr Lipsky has the final say on discharge…

Asher will have one final eye exam in the NICU next Wednesday. He’s out of the gestational “danger zone” for ROP blindness which typically occurs between 32-37 weeks gestation…

If he does need intervention for his eyes, we will have to bring him back to the PICU…

We’re praying that we don’t have to 🙏🏻

We have a few more things to get done around the house before he comes home but we’re BEYOND ready for Wednesday 😍

May God’s will continue to be done. Monica and I would NOT trade this experience for anything. It has not only reinforced us spiritually but has pushed us to grow as a couple far beyond anything we could’ve ever imagined…