Holding Steady

Last night I felt like Matthew had taken a step back.  This morning, I think he's at least back to where he was and I was hopeful that he was making forward progress, but as I started this post, he started laboring to breathe again (right at 2 hours post treatment).  So, no major forward progress...yet.

The cultures came back and Matthew has parainfluenza 3, a leading cause of croup. He is the unluckiest baby.  The croup + the intubation Friday = severe case of strider. 

Though it doesn't change the course of action, the diagnosis put the doctors' at ease that we are on the right path (more breathing treatments).  As long as Matthew needs the breathing treatments, we will be here in the hospital. When he doesn't need them any longer, we will have a conversation with the doctors about how long he will need to be observed before we go home.  Though I want to be home, we do not want to leave a moment before we are sure Matthew has this beat. 

While Matthew and I are here at TCH, Jackson and Alyssa seem to be having a good time visiting with friends and family (many, many thank yous to the Randolphs, Renns and Kempers!) and Darren is keeping the household moving forward.  The cute report from home this morning is that Jackson 'tested' (texted) me on his 'ipod' (his etch and sketch) before going to school.  That gave me a warm fuzzy this morning, as did Matthew's improvement compared to last night.