Happy Birthday Dad and Henry

I forgot my camera today, so no new pictures. Duncan is doing really great and best of all his eye exam went great and he didn't have any abnormalities!! He is a blessed baby. I didn't go to the hospital until I knew he had already had the exam. A couple of nurses said it isn't something you want to be there for just because it is upsetting (for both mom and baby).

I had a Dr. apt. today and he went over what we would have to do the next time we get pregnant, that I would have to be monitored very closely from now on, etc. I decided to go home to my house after that and get a few things done. I cleaned out my fridge and cleaned all the shelves and drawers. It was needed and I now have a very empty fridge. It feels good to have a clean fridge-check one thing off the "to clean" list.

Justin and I went to the hospital together after he got off work and we had a good time sitting with Duncan. Justin had to leave at 7pm, but I stayed and got to help change his diaper and then best of all --I got to hold him. It was so nice and he had his eyes open wide. Even after I put him down he had his eyes open for 40 minutes or so. He is doing really good and we couldn't be happier.

Puppy Love

The hospital receives beanie babies that they use in the babies beds to help comfort them and they give them support to stay in certain positions. Well, Duncan's nurses keep putting cat beanie babies in his bed. Justin hates cats and he couldn't stand that he had cats in his bed. So it just so happens that I have an ample beanie baby collection from years ago and they are still at my parents house. I got them out months ago to find the bears and never put them away. I dug through them all and pulled out the dogs and washed them and took them to Duncan so he could have them in his bed to replace the cats. I knew one day there would be a purpose for those beanie babies. I'm going to go through and take out the ones that I know I don't want and I'm going to wash them and donate them to the hospital. If anyone has a beanie baby collection that they don't know what to do with now, if you want to get them to me I will wash them and take them to the hospital. I asked if they took donations of things and actually they love getting things like mobiles, bouncy seats, things that could be used with little babies. So if you have things that you don't know what to do with, I can take them down there for you if you want. Just let me know.

Feeling Good

On the oscillator. . .

No more oscillator, just the regular ventilator.

After three weeks Duncan is finally off the oscillator!! YAY!! We may get to hold him tomorrow and I am so excited. He is doing great. After he was on the regular vent for two hours they took a blood gas, and when it came back it was great!! He is doing really good. They adjusted his feeds so his full feed will be 20cc's which will happen tomorrow night at 5pm. They will add calories to his milk and he will begin gaining weight steadily.

He has an eye exam on Wed. so please pray that his eye exam goes well.

He is just doing what he needs to be doing and we pray that it continues that way.

Doing really good

Duncan is just doing really great. They are slowly decreasing the settings on his breathing machine and increasing his food. He is now 2lbs. 13oz.

My best good friend Christy came and spent the day with me at the hospital. We had a good time sitting with Duncan, talking with Brooke (his nurse) and just talking about what we want to do with our classes next year. We are not looking forward to going back to work. Every year at the end of the school year we have to take everything off our walls and pack everything up. It is such a pain and Christy did my room, her room and moved her room so that we could have a connecting door. She was stressed out, but she was a trooper for doing it. So needless to say we are not looking forward to getting all our stuff out and putting up our rooms again. It really takes almost two weeks to get ready for the beginning of the year. This is going to sound weird, but I'm glad this happened when it did. I'm not glad this happened, but because it happened at the end of the year I am able to save my maternity leave for when he gets out of the hospital and then take my time then. I am looking forward to it. I can't wait to take him home, we still have almost two more months, but they really are going by quickly. June is almost gone and it will be the end of July before we know it and then back to work and hopefully that will help the time pass quickly until he comes home.

Famous last Words

Justin swore that he would never change a poopy diaper. Well that lasted until today, today he changed a nice poopy diaper. It was really cute actually. I had to help talk him through it. I don't think he had ever changed a diaper before. I had to even tell him which side was the front and which was the back. He did a good job and I look forward to him changing many more.

Duncan is doing really well. He is on the oscillator still and will be until they can turn the settings down really low. He is now eating 10cc's of milk every three hours and they are still increasing 1cc every 12 hours. So by Monday night he will be on full feeds-this means that he will no longer get lipids (nutrients) but they will add more calories to his milk and he will really start beefing up. The orange cord you see in his mouth is his feeding tube. He weighs 2lbs. 11oz.- getting closer to 3lbs!!

The last few days I have really had the urge to hold him. It is really hard to not be able to. When he gets off the oscillator we should be able to start holding him what they call Kangaroo style. I won't be able to nurse him until he's off the oxygen machines so I am still pumping. I have a freezer full of milk, which means no more room for it, so I am just pumping and dumping my milk right now.

Gaining Weight

Duncan weighs 2lbs. 8oz. He is at 6cc's on the feeding, but that changes each day at 5am and 5pm. At each time he goes up 1cc on the food. So at 5am he will be getting 7cc's of milk. He is doing really good and the nurses are just letting him tell them what he likes and wants. He loves his fingers and finds comfort in sucking on them. They did have to turn on his light again due to the fact that he hasn't pooped since Sunday. They said that was common and he is peeing a normal amount and it wasn't to worry about. They might give him something to help along, but the nurse said they don't want him to depend on that to go.