What a great day...

Connor has been extubated and is doing great!
He has a nasal cannula going, but it's just giving him room air.

They just pulled the umbilical artery line.

The only connections he has now are the orogastric (OG) tube to help with feedings (it will probably be changed to his nose, or NG tube), and the umbilical vein catheter to give him fluids and TPN.

The greatest news that brought tears to our eyes, though, is that Heidi will get to hold him for an hour at 5!

Janae, his nurse the past 2 days, and who along with the other nurses has been outstanding, asked Heidi if we would be around for the 5 o'clock touch-time. We are, of course, so then Janae said, well, then you can hold him! Heidi's response was - well, if I wasn't going to be here, I'd certainly make changes in order to do that!

They've got the chair set up next to the bed. She'll get to hold him during the feeding and for about 30 minutes afterward - so about an hour! (Actually, she said that if she was going to hold him she "had" to do it for an hour...not a tough sell, to say the least).

It's been a really good day. Smiles all around. Thanks again for your prayers...

Just as an aside, he does have a small amount of air around his right lung still, but Dr. Santiago is not too worried about it. His oxygen level is staying up nicely.

At this point we pray for the bonding to take place between Connor and us, particularly with Heidi so that breastfeeding goes well. He'll need to be tolerating 8 feeds a day well without problems and gaining weight for him to be going home....The nurse thought it might be as long as a week, but, we'll see!