After a few days in Amherst we are back in Lebanon. I was nice to spend some time at home. We spent most of our time catching up with Rachel and preparing to go back to the Emerald City. For her part Rachel got to catch up on sleep, apparently staying at Grandma and Grampa's can really tire you out. We put her down for a nap on Thursday afternoon and she woke up Friday morning.

Rachel seems to be doing rather well. She wasn't thrilled about going for a ride with grandpa today, but that seemed to be over once she got to their house. Rachel has taken to reading books to herself. She took that to the next step on Thursday when she started reading to Zoey. After she came into the living room for her third book yelling "I'll be right back Zoey" I had to see what was going on. This would be what I found:


Tyler is doing great! His IV came out today. That leaves him with ECG, Pulse Ox, Nasal gastric tube (feeding), and a nasal canula(O2). That's quite a decrease from his days with a chest-tube. It is much easier to pull him out and hold him now, down to a 2 person job from3+. They popped the sky-light on his isolet yesterday and he's holding his temp rather well. He gets to wear clothes now, but the 0-7 lbs preemie outfit he's in here fits him like a tent. He's up to 3 lbs. 10 Oz. (1670 grams). He's had only one apnea so far today. Over all he's in great shape.

We had a quick drive-by meeting with the team today and confirmed what we had suspected coming up today. The ultrasound on Thursday didn't show any increase in the size of his ventricles. As long as he stays symptom free we will watch and monitor. There is another ultrasound and a brain MRI ordered for next week. The ultimate goal at this point is to keep Tyler in a stable condition for about a week and a half, when the Neurosurgery team thinks he will be big enough for a longer-term shunt (if he still needs it).