Well, we finished our first day on the floor and it was great! I love being here and having goals that will get us closer to HOME! It is a lot busier for me, as the parent, since they really encourage parental care for more things...so we are more comfortable when we go home.  All that is good with me!  I love taking care of my baby :)

There are a few things we are working on with Joshua now that we are out of ICU.  First, getting his heart rhythms under control.  The cardiologists are hoping the irregular rhythms he has been having was just due to the stress the heart under went during the surgery and that it might not be an issue anymore.  They are going to try taking him off some of the medications, since the risks they pose are not worth risking if the rhythms have corrected.  We will watch him over the next few days to see if any of the irregular rhythms occur.  If they do, they will try some other less-risky meds.  This may mean a trip back to the ICU in case his heart does not agree with the meds.  They will need to have a nurse to watch very carefully.  Hopefully, he does well withOUT medication, so we can avoid that detour.

Another thing we are working on are feeding.  We have been working with a speech therapist to help him.  We will be doing a swallow study tomorrow to hopefully get a better idea of what he can and can't do right now and what we need to work on.  We also need to figure out why his glucose levels drop to a scary level when we try to feed him over an hour instead of continuous feeds.  Hopefully more answers for that tomorrow :)

The next big milestone has been reached...we are out of the ICU!! What a relief! I really was getting frustrated with all the false alarms we were having...but it all worked out right.

I almost thought today would be another false alarm. Right after the doctors told us we would go to the floor, Joshua decided to have another small irregular heart rhythm. I was sure we would be staying another night. However, they checked the EKGs and double checked his electrolytes (after some serious digging with a needle...I swear this kid is not going to have any veins left after this...) and everything looked good. Thy are going to evaluate his medications for his heart rhythms one more time, just to make sure he is getting the proper dose.

We are very excited to be on the floor, but I did get one bit of bad news. The unit just started their "flu season" policy of no visitors under that age of 2...which means no Logan hangin' out with us in the room. This was a blow to me, since I was excited to have Logan more involved and I wouldn't feel so divided between my boys. I'm still hoping I can figure out a way, but we will do what we have to do. In the mean time, we are very grateful for the progress Joshua has made and for reaching this big milestone!!