Homeward Bound

Parker continues to improve with his eating. We still have a ways to go, but after talking with the doctor today, we may get to come home this week, possibly on Thursday! We will have to come home with tube feedings, but the important thing is we will be home! Parker will be three weeks old tomorrow, and it's been a very long three weeks of traveling back and forth to the hospital every day, spending all day there with him, and his Daddy going in almost every night at 1:00 a.m. to feed him. I can't imagine that we will be more tired than we are right now once we get him home.

Parker weighs over 7 lbs. now and is normally eating 45-60 cc's by bottle (that's 1 1/2-2 oz.). The problem is he only takes a bottle three to four times per day. In order to gain weight, he needs to take in about 65-75 cc's every three to four hours. If we try to give him a bottle more than three to four times per day it just wears him out and he's only able to get down about 25 cc's (about 3/4 of an oz.). As a result, we have to tube feed him every other feeding to keep him from getting too tired. When you come home with tube feedings, you also have to learn how to change his tube. Luckily, this only has to be done once a month. Today his Daddy worked with the nurse and changed his tube for the first time. I know it wasn't easy for him, but he did great and got it in just fine. Right now I am just too chicken to try it. Besides, someone needs to hold his pacifier in his mouth and keep his little hands out of the way, and I think that's the perfect job for me.

Once we get home we will be able to begin working with the feeding team at Scottish Rite's Cranio-Facial Clinic. This clinic does nothing but work with babies like Parker with feeding issues. We will also be working with our pediatrician on weight checks, probably daily, and also will start seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist since we are going home with an NG tube. There's a lot of work still to be done, but we are excited to finally look forward to getting our baby home so we can start on the road to his repair surgery. Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward.

I've posted a few new photos from today just before I left the hospital. It kills me to leave him while he's awake, so I avoid it whenever possible. These photos were taken while he was making his last-ditch effort to get me to stay, but he dozed off right after I took these photos, so I was able to sneak out.