5th Floor Happenings

These posts might be a little more spread out because this little guy wants to be geld as much as possible. I don't think you all will mind:)

Peter is impressing everyone with his appetite. We had our classic Peter night last night--wake up every two hours, eat, new diaper, cuddle time, sleep a little, then do it all over again. He loves it :).

I met with the ped team this morning, and this is what we know so far for the next few weeks of Peter's stay:

*Meetings with neurologists. We had a brief one today with a resident who was with Peter during his biggest seizure day. He said he's looking much better and that his basic reflexes were appropriate for an infant. Still waiting to meet with the head pediatric neurologist, hopefully today.

*"Play time" with occupational and physical therapists. He will have sessions 3x/wk while he's in the hospital and then will have play time with mom at home, as well as a follow up appointment in a few months with a high risk team. The therapists were really nice and said Peter is doing well. They said to give him good tummy time and work on tracking and other basic skills. His muscles are a little tight, so they taught us some different ways to hold him and games for him to do that will strengthen his muscles. They were also concerned that he is favoring one side with his neck by staying turned that way most of the time, but he might have only been doing that while they were there so it's something we need to watch. As I type this, he is looking the other way and smiling, so that's a good sign.

*MRI at some point to assess any changes in his brain from the infection

*Spinal tap some time before discharge to be sure that there are no signs of bacteria (requirement from infectious disease control)

I have to ask the doctor about how long our stay could be at this point, because the social worker wrote Day 7 of the antibiotics, but we have been here for 11 days. They might want to do a course of just penicillin for 21 days which would mean at least 4 more days in the hospital than we were thinking before.

We just had a nice visit from Aunt Alison and Aunt Christin. Peter was awake and social (until he got so comfy with Aunt Christin holding him that he fell peacefully asleep). If we weren't surrounded by the hospital trappings, it would have almost been like hanging out at home with him. We are so lucky to have so many family and friends close by and technology to keep in touch with those not so close. It brings cheer and a feeling of normalcy for me each day, especially when Joey and Joseph Michael aren't here.

If you do come visit us, be sure to watch out for little speeding cars! Actually, Joseph Michael has very good driving skills. But you might be talked into playing with some pretty cool toys.