Today was a good day

First, some pictures of the little men:

Noah snuggled in his car seat

Mommy gives Charlie a kiss

Holding Charlie's hand

Our brave boy

Noah napping with his Aunt Pat

Onto the Baer bunch news. After a day of rest, Charlie was given an opportunity to prove to his doctors that his body had begun to recover from his Norwood and subsequent modification to his Sano shunt. Charlie made some significant progress. He has begun making urine on his own despite being on dialysis which indicates his kidney failure may not be as serious as once feared. This afternoon for the first time since the Norwood procedure Charlie is not being administered any Epinephrine. Also his Dopamine dosage has been reduced. His lactic acid level is now 2.9. The physicians want it below 2.0; two days ago it was 14.9. His chest x-ray today indicated that there was very little fluid in his lungs. He is looking much less puffy because of his output, which means we are looking at possibly closing his chest tomorrow or Tuesday, latest. We know that we are going to face a lot more hurdles once that happens, but we are excited for this next step forward! From 7am yesterday to 7am today, his output was 350cc. Today, from 7am to 3pm, it was 110cc. There was 23cc of urine in his diaper alone! (His foley leaks a bit). All wonderful news, considering he was putting out nothing at all before dialysis!

Noah is doing well, being spoiled rotten already by his mom, dad, aunts, cousins, and grandparents. He is such a snuggly one! He's been doing well on the sleeping front, sometimes better than others, but Mina was able to nap today while not at the hospital. He doesn't like being put down very much though; we think it's a combination of getting spoiled, and maybe he just misses sharing his space with his little brother. Hopefully, it won't be too long before they can be reunited!

We know this is going to be a roller coaster ride, but it feels so good to have a day of good news to share. We will be sure to call tomorrow when we have a better idea of the surgeon's plans. Please pray for another good day! Thanks everyone!