Look, Ma- No Hands!

Your child learns how to ride a bike and then while you are still thrilled over that accomplishment, he is on to bigger and better things. I walked in this morning with camera in hand, ready to capture a picture of Toby in his CPAP gear and stopped dead. The entire vent machine was gone. Not in the room. Disappeared. Vanished. It was replaced by a slender little oxygen mixer and- just like that- one of the central fixtures in the last two months was gone. I mentioned yesterday that Toby had been fighting the CPAP. He managed to free himself from it in the wee hours of the morning and did so well on his own that he was promoted to hi-flo oxygen. He has done quite well today. It was a busy day in other ways, also. I did, in fact, use that camera and here are a few things he did.

This is the little face that greeted me when I arrived; Toby now has just a nose cannula for oxygen and a gavage tube for feeding. Otherwise, he is relatively unencumbered.

One of the major tasks before him now is to learn to eat. We have begun working on his sucking skills and he did fairly well today with his pacifier.
He continues to receive inhalation therapy for his lungs. Now that it does not go through the vent tube, it is delivered by a friendly little monster.
One of Toby's new freedoms without the vent is being held. His siblings visited today and were able to enjoy his first day out. Does Joella look a little bit happy?
Toby has also been quite warm the past few days and maintaining his temperature well. So he was promoted today from his heated isolette to an open crib. Ivy was one of the first to see him in it.
Caeli peeked in at him, too. He settled in quite nicely.
And here are a couple more of him snoozing the afternoon away as he rested up from all the excitement.


And so two full and eventful days have ended. A lot of milestones remain to be reached and possibilities of setbacks remain, particularly as the course of steroids ends. But look at what great and wonderful things the Lord has done! Our hearts are full of thanksgiving and praise for His goodness and power.