So Does Nathan Just Not Like Halloween Or What...

Nathan's second full day back in the NICU was Halloween.  A full 8 weeks since he had been born.  Partly to celebrate (and partly to avoid being home to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, we decided to spend as much of the day as we could at the hospital.

To celebrate the holiday, many of the nurses and other staff had dressed up in (mostly) kid friendly costumes.  And there were a couple of different activities, including a costume contest, that we attended while we were there.
 
But as always, the best part of the day was being with Nathan.  Now that he was back in the NICU and continuing to recover quite well from heart surgery, everything seemed to be on the up and up, except for this weird bug-eyed thing Nathan started doing every once in a while.

The first time we noticed it was when a nurse passed by holding a cup of coffee.  Nathan's eyes just got REALLY BIG and the look on his face was close to horror.  Was he scared of the nurse (sometimes I thought she looked scary without a costume on)?  Was he bothered by the smell of coffee?  Was he having withdrawals from any of his medications?  The last one seemed particularly likely considering all the pain management meds he had been on, especially after heart surgery.

So we didn't think very much of it.  Instead we envisioned Nathan having a steady degree of progress and thought that, especially now that he had a healthy heart, that there was an outside possibility for him to be home for Thanksgiving...only 22 days away.

The biggest thing left now was to get Nathan off the ventilator and bring down his oxygen needs to a level that we would be able to manage at home.  Could that be done in 3 weeks?  We didn't know, but we were sure hoping and praying that it could!  Wouldn't that be the best Thanksgiving?  And one of the best things to be thankful for?  We thought so too!