Praises to our God and King...

It has been a crazy couple of days in the NICU with so many new babies being born and so many that have been there leaving. Our little roommate Darcy was able to room in with her parents last night and though they were moved around quite a bit and kicked out of their room early this morning they are so excited about going home and so precious to us. We're going to miss them just as we miss Klayton who was our buddy and whose mom was my saving grace until last week when that little scoot headed home (he's doing great still by the way). It's amazing to me how attached you can become to people in such a short amount of time and the friendships that you make and will continue to build long after we've left the hospital.

Anyways as to the praises...thank you all for praying for little Matthew. Division of Family Services brought him a family in last night, I can't believe it but God didn't tarry on that prayer request at all and we're so thankful. Continue praying for them if you remember.

As for Mr. Tennyson, I thought he was a heavyweight yesterday but he weighed in last night at 4lbs. 12.3 ounces (we're almost five pounds) and he's receiving feeds of 40ML/1/2 HR so they moved up the timing on those as well.

He seems to be really tolerating everything well and he's down to 1/4 liter of Oxygen and satting very highly right now so praises there as well.

I mentioned his possible eye infection yesterday and last night his left eye (which was the healthy one) was looking rather icky and all last night. Jenny our nurse took the issue to Dr. Porte because even though they'd cultured one, it was highly likely that the infection, if there was one had spread to the other eye. Dr. Porte wanted to be proactive rather than waiting for the 72 hour culture so they started him on eye drops in both eyes and they're looking much better this morning.

It's amazing how much he's changed lately, he's getting his own personality, he's growing and everything is taking shape...he finally has a tooshie, rather than just bones covered in skin with a crack. The nurse practitioner, Jeanie who was there the night he was born has been off for the past week and she couldn't believe how much larger he is. She said yesterday he was too big for an isolette and she would bet that next Tuesday he will be in an open bassinette so that's huge. An open bassinette means I can walk in and pick him up to hold him anytime I want...the nurses can't wait either as they love the 2am feeding when we're not here and they are able to hold him. It's also another step towards heading home.

He hasn't been given another bottle yet however I think if Mara is here today it will probably happen, that makes me rather nervous because he's doing so well with non-nutrative and with his pacifier so I know he can do the suck portion but if he ever gets anything he chokes while swallowing. Those bottle they don't really have to suck on, the milk just runs out so I am worried he will choke so I am hoping maybe that they wait until he's the recommended age which is 34 weeks (which will be next Tuesday) before trying again, but we'll see.

They are saying Tennyson is doing better than they could have expected and now they're just waiting developmentally for him to get to the point where a full term baby would be so probably a couple more weeks!! It's hard to think that way because it's so exciting but there is still so much to be done. The nurses keep asking us what we have for him and we say, a swing, a pair of Chuck Taylors, a pair of Air Jordans and his preemie clothes that are under his isolette. They just laugh and say we may want to be thinking about that.

The thought is both exciting and nerve-wracking. I can't imagine taking him home as I know we will be total nervous wrecks however we also can't wait for him to be home and with us so we can hold him whenever we want, and start to develop our own routines. It will be bittersweet to leave the NICU though we're still a few weeks away but something I find myself often thinking about.

We are hoping that we will be able to get Tennyson's room all cleaned out and disinfected tonight and this weekend, so that we will be able to start putting things in there as we acquire them.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, and continue praying that infection will stay at bay and he will just continue developing. Pray for his little lungs and for his suck, swallow, breathe reflex as those are our next big obstacles.

Again we're indebted to and love you all.

Living in the Light-
Travis, Lindsay and Tennyson Myers