My blue eyed boy...

Ryder had a quiet night last night and has had a great day thus far!!

A repeat head ultrasound was done this morning and still looks stable without any new concerns.  His ICU team was considering doing a CT scan early this week but since everything still looks good, they may just wait and do an MRI at a later date (standard for all of the hypoplast babies post-Norwood surgery).  His ventilator settings have been turned down some and his blood pressures have looked great all day.  He is stilling diuresing well, too and kidney labs are improved.

Ryder's paralytic was turned off yesterday morning so we have been waiting a day to see if he would twitch his fingers or toes...the amazing thing that happened, though, is our little warrier (just to show us what he is capable of) went right to opening his eyes & looking around!  The fingers and toes did eventually twitch too but there couldn't be anything so wonderful to see as those beautiful baby blues staring back at us!!!  It's been 6 days since his surgery with a lot of ups and downs and can't explain how great it is to know that our little boy is still in there!!!  He was awake for about 20-30 minutes the first time and woke up again late this afternoon, that time moving his little tongue around too.  He will stay on some fentanyl and versed until he is off the ventilator so he will continue to be a little sedated and very comfortable until he is extubated, but even a little peek at those perfect blue eyes goes a long way!!!  So thankful for that!!!


Ryder James, 13 days old & making open heart surgery look utterly adorable.
And probably wondering why some crazy lady is taking his picture...again.