11:05pm
We are only in our first day and it’s already an amazing amount of work.
I spent the night last night but rushed home for a shower and change of clothes this morning. When I got back I went with Brenda to finally meet Andrew. She was feeling really bad that Max is getting so much love while Andrew down there by himself except for the short visits from family members throughout the day.
From there the rest of the day was a blur of baby feedings, people coming and going, visits to the NICU to see Andrew with family, helping with the breast pump machine, taking Brenda for a walk down the hallway, cleaning the breast pump parts (several times), talking to doctors, nurses, and other parents in the hallways, and occasionally taking a photo or two. I finally had “breakfast” at 2pm because it was the first chance I got.
I took more video then photos today, but some of the photos I took or posted below, and the rest are on the Flickr site. Click here to see all of them.
My Mom, sister Debbie and niece Madison will head back to Michigan tomorrow. It’s been great having them here since it was such a last minute trip for them. It’s hard to plan a trip when it can happen at any given moment. I really missed my Dad not being here but am grateful to have so many others. The boys send their love out to him (they both told me to make sure I put that on the website).
We were able to sneak Madison into the room today so that was great for everybody. We passed her off as my daughter from a previous relationship and had her wear the “new baby” hat. Nobody questioned it.
Brenda had a big day. She made great progress on both breast feeding as well as using the pump, she walked down the hall and back, took a shower, was taken off of the IV and other monitors and had a real meal. Her blood levels have shown signs of recovery so she will not need a blood transfusion after all.
Max is doing great and able to feed from a bottle now, and will breast feed fine once the milk starts coming in. He spent most of the day with us in the room and visited with people.
Andrew is doing great as well and is scheduled to come up to the room tomorrow around noon or so. They wanted one more night to be sure he was now eating OK, but he last 2 feedings went well and his breathing problems are no more.
For the first time since this all started to happen, I spent a half hour or so holding Andrew and really had a moment with him. He woke up for me and listened to me talk to him, often making eye contact. It was hard not to get totally choked up thinking how lucky we are to have two precious gifts of life. We tried for so long and at times thought it just might not happen for us, so seeing them now it’s still hard to believe they are ours. But we’re so grateful that they are and love them with all that we have.
I promise future entries here will be shorter, but I received a lot of email today asking for a update on everybody so I tried to be more detailed then usual.
Another update late tomorrow, but probably not much before midnight!
