24 Pound Newborn

Another day goes by when I'm ecstatically happy about Christian's progress, the fact that he's here, and that many people who have shown support for my Christian. I'm just floored by it.

Christian made great strides today and breathed on his own for 9 hours (and still counting). He will be put back on the vent for the night just to give him a rest since he worked so hard! I think he needs a rest, too, but I overheard the doctor saying, "Hopefully, this will be the last time on the vent." HOPEFULLY!!! I'm so excited about this. We've even started talking about his discharge and transfer to the transition facility in Phoenix. He won't go down to the regular Peds floor, which surprised me. He'll go straight to Phoenix and this will occur in the next 2 weeks, I believe. Wow! I'm excited about this because I can get a referral to the Ronald McDonald House and stay there with Christian or my husband has relatives there. But I'm even more excited because Christian will get additional rehabilitation services AND I'll be able to visit the HBOT center of AZ and maybe, possibly get him some treatments after discharge while we're up there. It will be quite the adventure. Of course, I'll need to come back to Tucson every now and then and make sure Manny and Gabe come visit me because they need Mama, too.

Accomplishments of the day...of course, the breathing. Christian's eyes have also been shifting more, trying to focus, and moving around with control. I also swear that I saw his mouth start to move a little. But he looks beautiful...just like my Christian. If you want to know what Christian is like right now he's like a 24 pound newborn. He moves like a newborn, eats like a newborn, and sleeps like a newborn. I love my giant newborn.

I also started a foundation account for donations made to go to Christian's care. It's called The Christian Quintero Foundation. Now all donations will go right into his account. I'm so proud because it will help him in his recovery and I can't wait! I also love when I get stuff done and don't procrastinate. This is just too important.

We had our first trach care classes and we learned about trach suctioning. We actually have to do this in order to "pass" our trach class so Manny and I both got to suction Christian's trach. Talk about nerve wracking! It isn't the procedure, it's the keeping everything completely sterile. This won't be an issue at home as much as it is in the hospital because of all of the constant germs he's exposed to here.

And without further ado...Christian's Chucks, as promised.

Daddy brings Christian cool, new high tops.

A little more posing fun.