Wow - what a difference a few days makes. Last time I was here I had one of the worst nights of my life. During my shift today, Judah is making up for the bad day we had.

Last night JD dozed off before the end of American Idol (around 9:00), woke up briefly at 11 to go potty, and was quickly back to sleep. From that point on, until about 5:00 am, Judah slept! The only interruptions were the nurses coming in to ‘take his vitals’ - why do they HAVE to do that in the middle of the night?

Dr. Pearl came by again this morning, with his entire entourage, and checked on Judah. He’s not happy with the color of the stuff coming out of Judah’s NG Tube, but he’s willing to try going without the suction and see what happens. The only bad side effect would be if Judah decides to throw up what the NG tube was sucking out. Our hope is that his body will take over and move everything through the way it is supposed to. They will check his tube every four hours and see what’s happening, and if he’s clear after three checks (I think), then we can take the tube out.

Judah is really interested in eating. Whenever I have something to eat or drink, he’s asking “What’s dat?” and “Can I have some?”. I think he’s going to be a little disappointed after they take his tube out that he won’t be able to have ‘peece reeses’ and Dr. Pepper immediately, but will have to settle for that gastro-uninteresting ‘clear fluid’ diet.

Earlier today, I took Judah for a walk around the ward. He’s not used to walking that much anymore, and typically only walks to and from the play room here. I explained to him that taking the long route will help him get his tube out, and he was willing to do it. He fussed and complained the whole time, but he did it! We then proceeded to spend almost two hours in the play room. He was sitting down, getting up, crawling on the floor, rolling over and generally have a good ole-three-year-old time. There was a little girl in there at the same time who obviously wasn’t feeling good. The hospital volunteer who was escorting her was trying everything to get her to smile, but she was having none of it. I joined in to try and get her to smile, and after watching a little while, Judah joined in. He’d give her toys, do silly things and goof around with her. By the time we left, the little girl seemed to me to feel a little better, and we even got her to smile a few times. We took the long way back to the room, and got Judah situated in his bed where he is taking a well deserved nap.