Family Update

Erin- She is taking bottles and growing quickly.  Erin weighs 6 lbs. 3 oz and is 17 inches long. She's come a long way her birth weight of 1 lb. 11 oz and 13 inches long. Wow! Milk does a body good!  Erin is currently working consistently taking bottles. She gets 55 ml every three hours and sometimes she will take the whole bottle or part of the bottle or sleep through the whole feeding. When she doesn't take the bottle, then she is gavaged which is where her food is given to her with the feeding tube in her nose (which goes into her tummy).  It's in her nose and not her mouth so that she can work on sucking bottles. The occupational therapist came to work with Erin and  me.  She showed me how to correctly give Erin a bottle. Who knew that there were specific techniques to use when bottle feeding a preemie.  I surely didn't.  There are rumors floating around that Erin could come home by the end of April or beginning of May.  My due date was May 1 and the doctors had always told us to plan for a homecoming around my due date. It looks like this might be happening!

 Will- Our prayers are being answered with Will.  He started pooping on Monday.  I prayed for poop in church on Sunday and my prayers were heard. ;-)  Now that he is pooping (which means that his intestines are working after his surgery) he starting getting fed breast milk on Thursday.  He is getting 3 ml right now.  So far, so good. His  little belly hasn't gotten any milk in over a month so I am sure it is wondering what to do with this stuff.  Will and Erin's eye exams came back unchanged! His belly is starting to heal even after the incision opened up.  Will's incision started oozing last Thursday and the surgeon had to take the medical tape off of the wound which caused it to open. There is a layer of stitches that were internal and those are fine. Now he has a 7 cm by 1.5 cm hole in his belly that gets packed with gauze two times a day.  He was getting morphine for the pain, but is now just getting Tylenol. I am amazed at how quickly it is healing up and Will's pain tolerance.  We just pray that this doesn't get infected and that it continues to heal.  His Broviac surgery went well last week and that is working fine. Will's vent setting are slowly coming down too.  He is awake more and we are getting to hold him more too. Yesterday, I held him for two hours! It was a great feeling for him to be snuggled up in my arms.

Mark- He had his last day at Uni-Solar yesterday.  On Monday, he will begin his new job and Grand Rapids Spring and Stamping which is located right downtown. He daily commute went from 75 miles round trip to 6 miles round trip.  He will be saving $100's in gas every month and have more time to do the things he loves like bike riding, running and spending time with us! I am so excited to have him so close to home.  Later today he is going to learn how to feed Erin a bottle. I'll have to post pictures later this weekend.

Me- It has been a good week and I am enjoying the feeling of being  less stressed.  Our prayers are being answered and both babies are making progress.  I have to admit that I am getting slightly freaked out about having Erin at home with us. What am I going to do with her? ;-) I won't have any  nurses around to help or watch Erin.  I guess we might finally start to be like 'normal' parents with a new baby at home.