In the last few days and weeks, Judah has shown some great steps developmentally. Yesterday, we celebrated his 3 month birthday, sadly, still in the CICU. But with his 3 month birthday, we can see that he is well on track for where he should be as a baby. Each day he spends more and more time playing, learning, and developing. He is sleeping regularly, and active and playful on a regular schedule too. He gets plenty of time to sing and dance with mommy, and play with his toys with daddy. Judah is reaching and beginning to use both hands to swat at his toys, and when mommy sings to him, or anyone talks to him, he makes mouth motions and mimics back. When we sit him up to play, he moves his head and neck all over, showing signs of trying to hold his head up on his own. Breathing through the trach has given him so much energy to eat and play that he is continuing to put on weight, and is now almost ten pounds!

Medically, the doctors continue to work on figuring out the correct dosages of medications to stabilize Judah’s heart rate. The issue is that these medicines often take a while to reach therapeutic potency, and they can stay in the system for a long period of time too, so it is difficult to determine which medicines work best. Most days Judah’s heart rates are stable and where they should be, but every so often as one medicine is almost out of his system, or one has not yet taken full effect, he will have a rapid swing in high or low heart rates. Right now it is primarily because of these occasional rates that we have not gotten to move to the Children’s Home, and remain with him at the hospital. But the doctors keep working to find what works for Judah, and we are confident in them, and confident that they will find it soon. This is not the kind of thing we want anyone to rush.

The nurses, doctors, and therapists continue to come in and play with and love on Judah – in the CICU they are not used to seeing babies so awake and playful. We continue learning about how to care for Judah and his Tracheostomy, but at this point Mommy is an expert, and for both mommy and daddy it is quickly becoming routine and normal. As we await transfer to the Home and eventually to our own home, we continue life the best way we can. We celebrate our Holidays, Birthdays, and milestones together, regardless of our hospital scenery. The last few days we have been celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, where we light candles to commemorate the one days worth of oil that burned for 8 days in the Menorah in the Second Temple of Jerusalem long ago. We’ve brought our own (LED) Menorah to the hospital, and we light our candles and say our prayers with Judah every night. We pray for him, and for all of you. And our thanks for your continued love and strength.