DAY 5—TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008

KATIE- Today Katie has been doing much better. The pain is still there but she is able to move and stand up a little easier. She is consistently getting enough pain medication to keep her going. Her blood pressure has been a bit better today but is still on the high side. The blood pressure medication has helped a little, but only time will help it go down as she heals more from the surgery. The hardest part has been eating the hospital food they serve. Today was especially bad- perhaps because it's going on five days.  At about 5pm one of the doctors from from Dr. Adeshak's office, Dr. Bohman, stopped by and allowed Katie to be discharged from the hospital. We waited until the 7pm feeding (& to eat a real meal brought in by a friend) to see Andrew and Aaron off and then she was finally discharged from the hospital about 9pm.

ANDREW - Today Andrew was a bit more lively. Doctor's had begun to decrease his pain medication a bit today. So he moved his arms and legs a bit more. They also started feeding him a bit of mothers milk and formula at 3 cc per hour. Previously the only nutrition he received was some sucrose and electrolytes through his IV. Also blood tests showed that his Creatine levels decreased from 0.8 to 0.6 which is great. Doctor's also reduced his breathing machine to allow him to breath on his own. He is still hooked up to the machine and still has the breathing tube, but he is able to take breathes on his own now. Unfortunately some of the urine had been passing around his catheter and into his diaper, so they weren't able to track the total amount of urine he was producing. But he is still producing a lot of urine which is good. They will probably replace his catheter sometime today or tomorrow.

AARON - Today Aaron is back into a regular crib now and maintaining his own temperature. He has also eating better, but had to finish his bottle using the feeding tube during a couple of the feeding times. Nurses have also increased he amount he eats per feeding to 33 cc. Which is a lot to drink down. Aaron also received an ecocardiogram which is used to detect any defects in his heart. Luckily nothing was found which was good news. Overall Aaron is doing so well and has been awake more during each feeding. We are so proud of the progress he has made. (PICTURE: Daddy holding Aaron)