Chillin'

First, I'll say that Jude is way more relaxed today than at any point before. He's on the same amount of sedative as yesterday, but his legs are relaxed, his toes are together, and his arms are away from his chest. He's doing exactly what they want him to be doing, which is holding all his vital signs steady and relaxing.

For those of you who are interested in the facts as we know them right now, here's what I see as pertinent, keeping in mind that we still don't know for sure what's wrong.

- He was born after being without oxygen for about 6 minutes, due to a placental abruption (separation of the placenta from the uterus) and a nuchal cord (u-cord around the neck)

- He had a 1-minute Apgar score of 1, meaning he had a pulse, and not much else

- He gasped for breath at about 10 minutes after birth, and was breathing on his own within an hour

- He had a very acidic blood Ph due to lactic acid in the blood, which was treated and eventually corrected with sodium bicarbonate

- he had a seizure at some point within the first four hours, making him a candidate for the cooling blanket

- His EKG showed some pulmonary hypertension, and his EEG and cranial ultrasound were normal

- He was very irritable for the first two days on the blanket, but is much more relaxed now

Based on all these things, I'm optimistic. I'm the kind of person that likes to have a story that explains things (watching too much House, I suppose). My hope is that there was never any major brain injury due to lack of oxygen (which is why he was able to breathe on his own so soon), his seizure was caused by the low pH (which is very possible), and the hypertension and irritability was caused by a combination of the irritation of the brain due to the hypoxia and the discomfort of the cooling process.

I don't know that this is what happened, but that's the story I'm hoping for and it makes sense to me.

Tomorrow is a huge day. He gets warmed up at 10am, it will take six hours, and if he's responding well, we will GET TO FINALLY HOLD HIM. Cross your fingers for us.

Finally, we get the dogs back tomorrow too. It's funny when things go so wrong how much you look forward to your familiar comforts, and petting Lucy and getting licked by Clara will only help our coping, I'm sure.

Coming soon, PICS, I promise.