October 19, 2011

After spending 10 hours at the hospital today with Jack, we are exhausted.  It was another BIG day for the entire family.  Jack continues down the right path.  Jack was officially taken off of his high flow oxygen canula and is now on the low flow canula.  He is on 2.0 Liters with 25% oxygen.  Room air is 21%.....and that is the goal.  The respiratory therapist today shared that they believe he will be off of the oxygen tomorrow altogether!!!  HOORAY ! !  It's one less tube we have to worry about.  We are sick of tubes, leads, cords, etc....and so is Jack. 

The Dr.'s allowed Jack to breast feed today and he did super!  He seemed to know exactly what to do.  The only issue is that he is so darn sleepy all of the time, but that doesn't surprise any of us since he is a preemie.  Although his weight of 6 lbs. 2 oz. doesn't exactly make him look like a preemie.  He is certainly one of the larger babies in there. 

We also had another big moment because Jack was finally able to be held by big sister Madeline!!  As you can imagine it made us all tear up, and Madeline immediately fell in love.  This was her first true interaction with Jack because her previous interactions were very brief because all of his cords, tubes, leads, etc. were frightening to her little 5 year old eyes.  She didn't want to leave tonight and insisted that she hold Jack until Jack was ready to go back to his bed.  Jack was quite content in her little arms, so I had to tearfully take Jack from her and put him in his crib and we left......which still SUCKS!  There is nothing more difficult than having to leave a child at the hospital.  I still cry everyday when I leave..I just can't get used to this.  We also took our first family picture.  I can say that this was an AMAZING feeling and it felt good to have the whole family in one picture, finally.  Now, it's no professional photo, but it's my new favorite photo.

This is also a favorite.....she couldn't stop kissing him! 
Again, thanks for all of your continued prayers.  Jack continues to do so well and we couldn't be more satisfied.  We just can't wait to have him home.