A pleasant surprise!

Noah is not so sure about this bath business....

Charlie after his chest closure!

Today, the surgeons were set to begin the process of closing Charlie's chest again. They had planned to do this one to two stitches at a time. The surgeons put in two stitches and watched carefully...after Charlie showed that he could handle the first two stitches, they decided to try to close the chest entirely. Charlie did wonderfully! His vitals remained stable throughout the procedure as well as immediately post operatively. They turned the Vecuronium off (the paralytic). They said that he should begin sporadic movements 12 hours after turning it off, and it should be out of his system completely by 24 hours. They will be weaning his vent throughout, which they have been doing since yesterday because he was getting too much help. Praying that our pumpkin will be breathing on his own soon enough! He will remain sedated, obviously, because of the post operative pain, not to mention he is still hooked up to about a million tubes. His dopamine drip is also being weaned down - from 13 down to 10, and hoping that it will be turned down to 5 soon enough. His epinephrine remains off. He is making more urine than ever before, and his peritoneal dialysis has been turned off. The tubing is still in, just set to drain in case his body needs to drain anything extra. Charlie has proven to be a fighter! We are hoping the night remains stable - his pressure, heart rate and pulse ox have remained stable throughout.

Noah is doing extremely well too. For such a little peanut, he sure has quite a bit of personality! He makes us laugh and giggle everyday with his expressions and sounds he makes. He had his second pediatrician appointment yesterday. He had his second metabolic screen done, and another quick lookover by his doctor. He looks great, and he is back up to birth weight! We are slowly getting the hang of feeding, and though we don't have much of a routine, it's still been a wonderful experience.

We have been through quite a rollercoaster ride since the 26th of April, but we couldn't be prouder of our two boys! They both have hurdles ahead of them - some more serious than others - but each one is stubborn and a little fighter in their own right! We are truly blessed! Praying for another good night :) Thank you all so much for your prayers as well. The power of prayer is truly amazing. We really are the luckiest family!

Lots of love,

Mina and Josh