Our Little Man: Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July! It's been a fun and busy holiday weekend for us so that's why it's been a few days since the last post. Becky left on Friday and a few hours later, my parents came in to town for the weekend. So I guess I'll run through the updates on Lewis from the past couple of days.

Coleman mentioned in an earlier post that Lewis's fontanel seems sunken in. Apparently that's a good thing. I was in the room when neurosurgery came one day and the first thing she said when she saw him was, "Oh! A nicely sunken soft spot!" The fact that it's sunken means that the shunt is draining, which is a very good thing. It's possible that there was a blockage and it flushed itself out. It's also possible that the shunt was just set too high. They may still change his settings before we leave but I think they'll wait until right before discharge. We're still leaving him laying flat to reduce the pressure on his incision from the inside.

So my favorite piece of news from the weekend is that Lewis got to move from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to the Neonatal Intermediate Stepdown Unit. I think it was just a matter of needing more space in the NICU section but it does mean that we're one step closer to leaving this place altogether! I got to carry him from the NICU hallway to NIMS which was super exciting since I've never carried him anywhere before. Lewis loves it in NIMS and so do we. The rooms were designed to have one baby in them but there are so many babies that there are usually 2-3 per room. Lewis only has one roommate and it will likely stay that way since I breastfeed and need room to put up a screen. It is MUCH more private and much quieter also. He sleeps really well over there and the nurses love him. They all talk about how he's such an easy baby to take care of. We are over there almost all day long changing his diapers and feeding him so we pretty much do their whole job!

Today we gave Lewis his first bath. I'm not sure how clean he actually got... but he had to be cleaner than he was before. Right before we put him on his little pad to get washed on, we popped his pacifier out of his mouth so that he wouldn't spit it on the floor. (Although if he did, we wouldn't have minded. Once the pacifiers hit the floor, they throw them away... unless we snag them first. We've collected 4 I think... haha! Don't worry, we'll sanitize them!) Anyway, so we popped out his pacifier and he popped in his thumb and started sucking! It didn't last long but it was adorable. I saw him do it one other time when he was getting his nuclear scan. I actually interrupted the doctor giving me important information to scream, "He's sucking his thumb!!!" The doctor has kids, so he understood... haha! Coleman got to see it this time so that was exciting. Lewis didn't scream too much during his bath... he did pee all over the pad though!

A couple weeks ago plastic surgery gave us July 7 as the earliest date they thought that Lewis would likely be going home. They haven't been doing rounds all holiday weekend but tomorrow we're going to ask for an updated estimate when the come by. Everyone we talk to thinks that his incision is looking a lot better. We'll see what plastic surgery has to say! Thursday Lewis will be one month old and we'd love to have him celebrate that birthday at home. Seeing the fireworks on the 4th was bittersweet. The fireworks were great and I loved having my parents in town. It's just that I'd always imagined celebrating that holiday with Lewis somewhere other than at the hospital. The 4th was a reminder of just how long we've been here. The end is in sight, though! And we'd live here the rest of our lives if it meant we got to hang out with our little guy! He's the best :)

Some pictures from the weekend: