Today is Ethan’s due date, which means he is now 40 weeks gestational age. As he continues to get older and more mature, he will start to outgrow alot of his preemie problems such as the apnea. He’s already become an expert as suck-swallow-breathe and has no more issues when taking a bottle. Even with all of his congestion from the respiratory infection, he still did really well with eating and breathing.

This afternoon we were moved out of ICU and into a regular room on the pediatric floor. 4th floor – same as the NICU – home sweet home (yeah right). We might be able to come home tomorrow, but nothing is certain. Ethan is finished with his ribavirin treatments, and his chest sounds very clear. But he now has diarrhea and is throwing up. He started running a fever earlier this evening. This could all be side effects of his treatments, or it could be something else. We just have to keep an eye on him and make sure that he’s staying hydrated. His IV came loose earlier, so they took it out. It will stay out unless he throws up too much and starts becoming dehydrated. He really hated that thing, so I hope they don’t have to put it back.

I should be sleeping right now, but I’m wide awake. I was so tired earlier, I was starting to become delirious. Aaron helped me get Ethan all settled and sleepy, and I was ready to go to sleep. Just as we got him settled, the nurse came in to check his vitals. She had to strip him down to his diaper, and of course, this woke him up and made him fussy again. After she finished, I wrapped him all up again and got him settled just in time for the respiratory therapist to come in and give him a nebulizer treatment. After that was finished, I realized that I might as well stay awake for a while because I will need to pump and Ethan will need to eat again in the next hour. Hopefully after his next meal, he’ll want to go right to sleep and we can start to catch up on our rest before the next interruption.