Evening update (Thursday 12/11)

Max is doing well in his open crib. The day was full of events, but we haven't learnt anything really new about his hydrocephalus or GI condition since this morning's update. Rather than go through Max's activity planner for the afternoon, I thought we might look at some pictures. In celebration of Max's newly liberated status, Carolyn took the camera into the NICU today and shot some photos.

Let's start with a long shot of Max in his swanky new digs:


Note the lack of any IV lines or respiratory assistance. Max still has a feeding tube and a complete set of monitors, but he's becoming more independent. And now let's look at a closeup shot:



The NICU team like to keep his hands near his face for developmental reasons, but it's also very cute. Carolyn captured some shots of physical therapist A. working with Max. In this shot, A. is moving Max's knee up to his stomach:



Note that you can see the red light from Max's pulse oximeter on his foot. Finally, a shot of A. holding Max up:


Carolyn reports that Max was "playing possum" during his physical therapy. He would crack an eyelid from time to time but otherwise was trying to pretend to be asleep. If you look closely, you can see that Max is grabbing A.'s finger. That picture, however, reminds me a lot of a picture I took of Max's older brother exactly two years ago today: