Some positives and lots of thanks

Wow, the kindness of people truly astounds me. The support and love from our friends, co-workers and even people we don't know brings me to tears. All I can think of to say is wow. Please know how much it means to us right now.

We've had some positives with Drew over the past couple of days. The biggest news is that he's coming off of the nitric oxide at a good rate and tolerating it well. If he keeps it up, he should be completely off of it around 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

His heart U/S taken on Monday looked as though the ductus arteriosus in his heart had closed. The one taken today, and not yet read by Drew's surgeon, looked as though the ductus was still open BUT that the blood was flowing to the lungs rather than down to the umbilical cord. His heart structure and overall function looks very good according to the U/S tech and a pediatric surgical resident we spoke to this morning.

His oxygen on the vent is still at 30%, a fairly good level at this point. The oxygen level on ECMO is at 100%. That needs to get down to 21% (basically room air) before the medical team is comfortable according to the nurse that heads up the ECMO team. So he still has an extremely long way to go and is still pretty darn critical.

I got to give him a sponge bath yesterday!! I spent over an hour just bathing him, massaging him and putting lotion on him. He looks so much better now. He kept opening both eyes and looking at me and giving me his silent cry. It broke my heart but at the same time, it was so wonderful. I'm so thankful for his nurses who helped and told me it was ok to do it. Who knew such a little thing could make you feel so great?!

His swelling is down considerably but his poor head is quite misshapen. He basically has to lay in the same position 24/7 and it takes a toll.

Here are some new pictures taken this morning, notice his nicely combed hair...