progress

We are on the road to recovery!  I can't believe Caleb is not quite 3 weeks old... it feels like we've been here in the hospital for months.  I definitely do not feel like a mother of two, because I am only ever with one of my kids at a time.  I can't WAIT for the day when my whole family gets to be in the same place at the same time, and I don't have to miss anyone.  At any given moment, I am missing at least one of my boys... that is getting so old.  But it's easy to focus on good things, such as the fact that Caleb has had so many boring days in a row.  Trust me, boring is very good around here.

Here's the latest: Caleb is tiny.  I mean, TINY.  He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. when he was born.  He currently only weighs 5 lbs. 14 oz.  He lost a lot of weight during the time of his surgery and recovery, because he didn't eat for almost a week.  Now that he's finally eating, they expect him to start making up for lost time and gaining weight soon.  One thing about heart babies is they usually have no energy to eat for weeks after surgery.  When we were transferred back to the NICU, the docs and nurses all told us to expect him not to eat on his own for a while.  In fact, a feeding tube was already ordered.  However, I asked if we could just give him a shot, and lo and behold, he scarfed down a bottle.  Since then, he has picked breastfeeding right back up (a near miracle) and never misses a meal.  To you, this may seem like no big deal, but believe me, for his condition it is HUGE.  There is another heart baby up here who had surgery three weeks ago and still is on a feeding tube.  The fact that Caleb has not needed that is incredibly encouraging.  We don't want to get our hopes up too much, but the doctors think if he continues to eat this well, we could go home on Friday.  !!!!!  Of course, we're holding that loosely, but OH MY GOSH!!!  I can't even imagine how good it will be to walk into my own home, with my husband and both my boys all there together.  It almost seems too good to be true.

There's an update.  I have more to write about, things I have been thinking about lately... but for now, I've got to go feed my baby boy.  My little fighter boy.  :)