Not much is new

Rhys was a little better today. His O2 was in the 60s, though was knocked down to the 50s before we left. He is still desatting on and off, but thankfully hasn't dropped his heart rate again that I know of. He got hot again today in his isolette so they switched the setting back to where the bed regulates its temperature based on how hot/cold the baby is. Previously the bed was on the constant temp setting to allow Rhys to regulate his own body temperature, but since he was getting too hot they switched him back. They don't normally do this, but it is an attempt to keep the nurses from having to constantly tweak his temp setting, to keep his heart rate from increasing when he gets hot and to try to prevent him from having to be moved to an open crib before he reaches 1800 grams. Rhys also had another echo today to check out the PDA and heart. Sometimes the PDA causes one side of the heart to enlarge and pump harder so they want to make sure this isn't happening with Rhys. They also want to see if the PDA is still open, closed, large or tiny, etc. They think his desatting might be related to the PDA. If his PDA is still open this doesn't mean he would necessarily need surgery, but if he did need surgery he is in a better position now than he was a month ago.

The last few days Rhys has been very alert. He will have his eyes open and just look around for 10-20 minutes at a time. He seems to be taking it all in. He also has figured out how to get his thumb in his mouth to suck and he looooves the pacifier. He can mostly do this now without desatting, though he still has a bit of trouble. During his echo today he was very calm (except at the end) and didn't need his oxygen bumped up. This is amazing since he hasn't previously tolerated the echo very well. Still no follow up eye exam, I will ask again tomorrow. Oh, and he is 1410 grams today (3 pounds 2 ounces).