Another Crazy Day

Gos blessed us with another day with Kelson, and many more family and friends. We survived our first night in the guest house, and got up early to go see the little guy. You can imagine our shock when we heard his weight was 3 lbs 9 oz!! He had lost over two pounds overnight. Normally this would be a bad thing, but in our case, it means he has been able to loose more fluid and swelling, which is good. His arms are like little toothpicks, and his skin is getting very wrinkly. We came back to the guest house for a quick breakfast and shower, then back to the hospital. The doctor wanted to rotate Kelson head to toe in bed, because the vent causes his head to go to one side and can be hard on his neck. Due to his critical condition, the nurses decided it would be easier to move the equipment to the other side of the bed. They had to take him off the vent, and use a neopuff while they moved the equipment. This took a team of about 6 people to get done efficiently. Apparently he tolerated it all quite well. The visitors were rolling in again today. Nicole Reitz brought almost an entire grocery store worth of food for us, so we won't be going hungry any time soon. I also had my "little sister" Katie Prudek drive down from Chicago. About 11:30 we had our first big scare. Kelsons heart rate was dropping, and the nurses could not figure out why. They paged the doctor, and Krista came to get me in the waiting room. As we were scrubbing in, both the doctor and the respiratory therapist went running past. We rushed to the bedside. The doctor was able to insert a catheter into his breathing tube, and his heart rate began to rise. He explained to us that he basically had a "booger" lodged in his breathing tube, but they were able to remove it. Thankfully it wasn't any more serious. My parents brought Claire down again after church. They had quite the story to tell. During the children's message at church, Pastor Liz was talking about the Good Shepherd. She was giving examples of shepherds in our lives, like mommys and daddy's, when Claire piped up and said "The Docotrs are like shepherds taking care of Baby Kelson". I still get chills thinking about it. She is absolutely right. Kelsons medical team is watching over him, being Gods healing hand. We got to spend some more hands on time again today. Krista was able to wash Kelsons hair, and I changed my first dirty diaper. We also were visited by Sarah Viall, the Poppe family and Jr. And Joellen Gehring. It was great to have so many visitors, but we were pretty worn out by the end of the day. We spent some more time with Kelson before the shift change at 7 pm (visiting is closed from 7-7:45). Krista and I decided to leave and go to Perkins for dinner. We came back to the hospital to tuck Kelson in, and got to visit with a doctor. Unfortunately, we did not make much metabolic progress today. His blood is still acidic, and glucose levels are still high. Hopefully he will have another good night of draining fluid, so his body can start to regulate itself. We continue to get messages from friends, and people we have never even met, who are all following Kelsons story. We appreciate all of the well wishes...they help keep us strong, and give us courage and hope. We can never say thank you enough.