Wed. Dec. 19th

They've been cleaning the floors in the NICU and today Luke moved to a different room while his area is cleaned. He has a private room, but with a window. It's out the way in the back, so we're not certain if he'll stay there or not. I held him by the window so he could see outside, he was definitely checking it out. In fact I sat back down and rocked him, but positioned him to still see out the window and he snuggled in and just gazed out the window.
He had his last dose of the steroid Monday and is weened down to a low amount of the Nitric Oxide. He had a repeat Ecocardiogram, the pressures came up slightly from last week. Which is disappointing, since we want those pressures to go down. The idea of closing his ASD has come back up, where the ASD is located on Luke is right next to a small flap that should be closed, but because of his heart working harder on one side than the other, the flap is a bit stretched and making his ASD a bit stretched too. We're talking to his doctors and specialist to see what looks to be the next option. There is a procedure where they can go through the artery in his leg, which is much better than through his chest, he would need to be on the ventilator, so we have some thinking and decisions to make about what approach is best.
Luke is very active and social. Lot's of cooing and smiling, he's such a happy baby. He also started sleeping 5 hour stretches at night. He's getting to be a big boy. I was taught how to massage Luke from his Physical Therapist yesterday. He loved it! Babies born as early as Luke can think of touch as being negative, so massage helps them work past that. Already I can tell how much he loves it, which is really good!
Lately we've had some conversations with friends that didn't realize how "normal" Luke is. A few were able to see him in person and were really surprised at what a perfect baby he is. Which we still hear from the doctors and nurses about babies with Luke's condition don't respond like he does, he's very unique in that sense. Truly amazing and of course wonderful to us!
Sorry for the delay with his statistics, but here they are:
9lbs 7oz (about the same as last week, the steroid reduced any and every bit of inflammation in his body, so this wasn't surprising and isn't concerning)
Length 21.2" (good growth!!)

We're having fun preparing our house for company this week, have Grandpas and Grandmas visiting soon.
Melinda