Dare to Experirnce the Joy

Will is my little adventure baby although his sister is also something of a daredevil. In Will's first few days of life, he made a memorable entry into the world as a "footling breech" after a ride in an ambulance and an emergency C-section, he's lived under the hot lights as if he's on the beach and now he looks like he is spelunking (sp?) with his IV in his head. I know we will have our hands full!

Today he is stable and actually got to come out of the tanning bed. Auntie Meri and Great-Grammy came to visit as well as Papa, Great-Grandpa and Uncle James. His bili levels are at 5 and although he's still laying on the Wallaby blanket, it's nice to know he's making progress. For all of those who prayed for poopies, our prayers were answered and he had full diaper yesterday. Now we'd like to move on to regular bowel movements.

Last night, Andrew and I were there for his nightly assessment which is at 9:00. I got to change his diaper, take his temp and then lift him as he was weighed. The nurse weighed him three times and finally settled on 3 lbs. 1.5 oz. It is a little discouraging as he is consistently losing weight so the next hurdle is to get him packing on some fat. This morning they increased his feed to 15 cc and then they will also fortify his milk. The nurse said it's like having a milkshake!

This is probably the last picture of me pregnant. It's on Mother's Day morning. Libby's gift to me was this Fuschia tree which she is smelling. It makes me a little sad to see this picture as I was planning to be pregnant for a lot longer and it represents a lot of what our lives are not right now. Although we are so thankful to have little Will alive, it's hard to wrap our minds around this new normal which is so different than what we expected. It's also hard to celebrate the little successes because we never know what's around the next corner. I was reading a little book for parents in the NICU and it said "Dare to experience the joy when your baby has small accomplishments" so that's what we're doing. Then we'll move on to the next task.

If you'd like to pray for Will, pray for weight gain and steady heartrates. If you'd like to pray for us, oh, do we have list! Andrew goes back to work on Tuesday and I know it will hard for all of us. He's waiting until Will comes home to take any extended time off so it's a lot of bouncing in between right now. Please pray that we'd all find a rhythm, that Libby would find a sense of normalcy and that I would continue to seek God's strength in all of this.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support! We ate such a yummy quiche for breakfast this morning that a sweet friend made and it was just another reminder of God's provision to us and his care for us through our friends and family.