Patients...

Brantley has come so far but he still has a long ways to go. These past couple of weeks I have been amazed at how much Brantley has grown. I feel like he is getting so big and he is for Brantley but compared to anyone else's baby that isn't in the NICU he is still tiny tiny. Brantley is now over 5 pounds AND we have started actual breast feeding and he is doing so well with it. The nurses are all very impressed with how well he latches on and eats for as little as he is. The past couple of days I have been allowed to breast feed him twice a day, and each time he gets about a half an ounce before he becomes to exhausted and can't go on. After he is able to eat more at a time we will go to 3 times a day and then 4 times until the last couple of days where we will stay at the hospital and I will feed him on his schedule and then he can come home. He is doing so well but David and I still have a few concerns. His oxygen level and heart rate drop quite a bit. The doctors and nurses don't seemed to concerned right now and they say that these kind of things happen often with preemie babies and he should grow out of it. But as for David and I who have never gone through anything like this before, we are terrified. But we trust the nurses and they have a better knowledge than we do and have probably has baby's like him before and know when to get really concerned. But anyway we are so proud of Brantley and the progress he has made and continues to make.

and as for me I am doing well. Healing just fine. I feel great, which can be a slight bit of a problem sometimes because I think I can do way more than what I really can right now. The incision is great and healing. The itching has stopped and it is now just a long scar. I also am now an official stay-at-home mom. I signed my final papers at work. It was a bitter sweet moment. I am really going to miss the people I work with and even some of the people that came in. But I will love being able to just spend all my time with Brantley when he comes home.

Life is good. Brantley is already teaching me some valuable lessons. One of them is patients. Another is the fact that I can't make him or anyone really do what I want. People have their free agency and with Brantley I just have to realize that he is the only one who will decide when he comes home. I can't make him eat, or develop at my pace. He will come home when he is ready and we will be so excited whenever that day comes, but hopefully it won't be too much longer!