Look ma, no vent!

Hello all,

The blog has been getting quieter over the past few months, because we are finding that Peter's life is becoming almost too ordinary to justify his own blog. Nevertheless, we are rejoicing in his milestones. Many of these milestones are, again, quite ordinary but any of these are still miraculous in light of his long journey to get there. To be reaching ordinary infant milestones is a delight we could not have imagined to rejoice in last summer.

Peter is now crawling like the best, much better, in fact, than his brother every did and much earlier. He is also learning to cruise along furniture and walls and we have little doubt that before long, he will take his first real steps. We have had to consider changes to the way our house is organized to keep it safe for him. Luckily, the presence of nurses means that most of the time an adult is there to keep him out of trouble.

The fact that he is now moving out of the living room does indeed signal that he is now mostly tubeless. In fact, the biggest milestone in his life was reached today. A very not-ordinary one: he is now completely off the breathing machine. For the first time in his life he is now no longer on any vent, even at night! We rather unceremoniously removed the vent from the room today. The only tubes he still has attached to him are those that provide heat and humidity to his tracheostomy, and his attached to those practically only when he is napping and sleeping.

Peter remains a very happy boy who loves to do as his brother Daniel does. Recently, they discovered a game they can both enjoy playing together. The video below illustrates a particularly enjoyable round.



There are many more milestones; practically every day there seems to be one. He is a good and adventurous eater. Thanks to the six teeth he has, he is quite willing and able to eat all sorts of things. We are looking forward to the next appointment with Peter's cardiologist and pulmonologist on April 23. If the X-rays and all other things look well, we may be looking at a swift appointment with the ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor to take out the tracheostomy and do the restorative surgery, possibly as soon as May.