in the ‘burbs

Today was spent at Winchester Hospital. Life is a lot different in a suburban hospital. Things are a lot more low-key, and of course the babies around us aren’t quite as sick. Most of them are just preemies. It’s a far easier place to spend the day in some respects. And it’s a much easier drive. It takes about 15 min. and there’s free parking.

Riley is doing very well. He’s been eating regularly (and a lot) and he’s remembering to breathe… The nurse who had him today took the feeding tube out of his nose. It’s so nice to see him with nothing stuck to his face or head. He looks like a normal one week old now. The red spot on his cheek (where the feeding tube was attached) looks like lipstick though:

Here’s a shot of the hair that has all the ladies sighing:

He’s taking very well to breast feeding. Since that’s still a new thing we’re still doing a combination of breast and bottle, but it’s all from mom and he gobbles it down. It’s nice that we don’t have to worry about him eating in whatever way we feed him. It means daddy can have a chance and it will also make it easier when Shelby goes back to work in three months. Grandma did some feeding today and got to hang out with Riley a bit:

We were getting a little frustrated with the fact that we hadn’t gotten any information on when we could expect to take our boy home. The doctor who was on today didn’t seem to have much to say to us. Finally Shelby got her attention and she told us that they wanted to have more than 48 hours with Riley, so we can figure on him being discharged on Monday morning. We had been hoping for Saturday afternoon, but you take what you can get I guess. One of the reasons for this is that they want to test his levels (HR, O2, etc.) when he was in his car seat. They do this for 90 min. and usually when he is sleeping at night. We also get to review a tape on infant CPR, which isn’t a bad idea either. At this point the levels of Phenobarbital in his blood are good, although they expect them to drop slightly before discharge and they will be checking them further. So we don’t get to take him to church this week like we wanted to. Better to make sure things are just right though.

We’re getting a little more antsy at the hospital now. Everyday normal family life can’t start early enough. A few more days and we’ll have our boy at home. He’s hitting all his benchmarks and he’s getting to be more fun each day as the medication level drops and he’s awake more. We’re so thankful that he’s doing so well. God has been blessing us in a big way.

Here’s our first family shot since the one taken in the delivery room. God willing there will be many more to come.

Thank you Lord.

We love our boy!

Jonathan