Oxygen Is Our Only Hurdle

We're on day 5 now and the only thing that is keeping us here is the oxygen. The doctors reviewed his chest x-ray from this morning and again it looks better but there is still just a little bit of atelectasis in his left lung, which means a tiny part of his lung is not fully inflated which would cause him to need just the tiniest bit of O2. It's very common after surgery and since Bennett it just an infant they said it's much harder to clear his lungs than it would be for an adult because an adult or even a child can get up and move around, cough, blow bubbles etc. to help clear out the fluid but you are limited with infants.

So they've started aggressive chest PT with a chest vibrator that basically massages Bennett on the back and chest and it breaks up any mucous or fluid. Also changing the position he is in frequently, can help. They said if he can keep his sats above 95 for 12 hours, we can go home-talk about pressure:). They will now do the echo tomorrow and hopefully by that time he will have met the 12 hour requirement and we can leave! We're going a little stir crazy here but we've been able to get out outside while he sleeps and this part of Philadelphia is very pretty and there's great restaurants so Mike and I have been able to have some nice dinners which never happens with 3 kids!! We're thinking these dinners can be our anniversary celebrations since it will be here in just 3 days and we're thinking we'll be back to the daily grind by then.

Anyways, just asking you to pray that Bennett's lungs will clear up and his sats can come back up quickly so we can go home. I know that if this is our only issue right now then I should be very thankful and I totally am. I'm so proud of Bennett but I know this could have been much worse so I thank God every day for the experience we've had. I also continue to pray for Liam and I hope you will too. I did speak to Kristin and since Liam is not my son I don't feel it's my place to disclose all the details but he is doing a little better but it's going to be a tough road and he still needs so many prayers. So even know you don't know this family because I really don't know them either, they still need prayers to lift up their son.

Here are some pictures of Bennett getting his massage chest PT and some playtime:

One side

and now the other side.

Mike playing patty-cake with Bennett's feet.

Bennett smiling at daddy- such a happy baby!