A nice and calm night last night with mommy, both she and baby got to sleep pretty well, even with the anticipation for the swallow test today. Judah has calmed down some, and seems to be doing well now that he has been off a number of his medications for a few days. He will wake up in the middle of the night sometimes just before a feeding, awake and alert he just wants to play and be held. Actually, this is how he is during the day too. He’s a wonderfully calm and quiet baby, and a great sleeper, just like his parents.
Today was another big test day for Judah, he had his “cookie swallow” test, to check for aspiration, if anything is going to his lungs instead of his stomach when he swallows his food. He has gained a lot of strength and did much better than his test a week ago, however he is still aspirating some, and the doctors do not feel comfortable letting us take him home just yet. At this point in his recovery, he is doing so well and moving along smoothly, that a setback at this point wouldn’t be good. If he were to get sick at all, or if his lungs did get fluid in them and he got pneumonia, it would be very bad for little Judah. They have instead told us that we will soon be moved to a different location, a pediatric specialty transitional facility just down the road.
We have few details just yet about this step-down facility – The Children’s Institue of Pittsburgh, but it is a smaller place where Judah will still meet with the same doctor teams, and there are a number of speech and physical therapists on staff there to help him continue his recovery. Mommy and Daddy will continue to stay nights there with Judah, but as of yet we do not have many more details. In the next few days we should meet with someone from this facility, and tour it as well. We will certainly give you all some detail as we find it out.
Overall, not great news to hear that it may be several more weeks in this new facility before we can all go home, but Judah continues to recover and gain strength. At this point, we do not want to rush his recovery only to end up back at the hospital. We will continue to do whatever our son needs until he is healthy and ready to come home the right way.