There shall be showers of blessing...mercy drops round us are falling...

Okay, I know I'm totally slacking on the new pictures however I'm not really technology savvy enough to get them from the camera to my laptop so I will have to wait until this weekend and have Travis do it...my apologies, he is cuter each day though and looking so much more like a baby than a tiny being full of tubes and such though he still looks exactly like his daddy...nothing at all like his mamma.

Last night was Travis' first attempt at the kangaroo care (the nurses and myself were really proud of him because usually dad's won't participate. I was visiting with a friend Hollie McDowell and she emailed me and said, " Tell Travis I think it's great he's doing the kangaroo care too -our nurses made the same comments about Eric. Lindsay I think you and I are lucky to have such good husbands who want to spend precious time with their babies. Our kids are pretty lucky to have such good daddy's too." I think she couldn't be more right) and he did brilliantly, I was so proud to watch my little guys all snuggled up together, relaxing in the NICU. Tennyson had his eyes opened for daddy for quite a while and we just visited with him. I do believe he is the most precious little thing on the planet. I did struggle a bit at the beginning because there is only so much we can do with him right now and since I get to be with him during his feedings and do my kangaroo care in the morning it only makes sense for Travis to get his turn in the evenings however it was hard for the first ten or fifteen minutes for me to watch them snuggle and me just sit by the sidelines. I then promptly decided to get over myself and enjoy the time we get with our little guy so we all visited together. There are no pictures thus far of the kangaroo care because they turn out all the lights so I don't believe they would turn out anyways.

I got the do his basic care first thing this morning and then got to kangaroo with him. It was wonderful and we made it another hour and a few minutes before he got to squirming. His sats didn't drop or anything (just like with Travis last night) however he has other ways of telling us he's had enough though we all three love it. He's doing so great, we really couldn't ask for anything more, God is sure holding our little one to His chest daily as he's growing and developing. We're praying (and ask that you'd join us) specifically for his white blood cell counts to increase and for infection to stay away, that's the most detrimental thing that could happen at this time.

It is really amazing to see the work that God has done already in this little guy. He has already blessed us beyond what we deserve and His grace is abounding in us each day. We can't believe the progress that Tennyson is making and Dr. Porte warned us last night that our biggest (and really his only) concern for Tennyson right now is infection. They say if they make it through the first month that their chances of survival are very good however we're only on day 10 and Tennyson's white blood cell counts are not very high (God has been so good thus far, I can't imagine He'd stop know though). It's a bit different in preemies than adults, as in adults the higher the blood cell count the greater the likelihood they have an infection. With the little ones the lower their cell counts are the greater the chances are because they don't have a great number of WBCs therefore the lower the numbers, the greater number had been depleted by fighting the infection. We were at 7.3 last night and dropped a bit this morning to 6.8 however they're not super concerned that he has an infection at this time however the nurses and mommy (and daddy after work) do an assessment of him every three hours and the first time we notice the slightest indication that he's off at any level they'll run STAT CBC's which are complete blood counts. They were discussing with me this morning what any changes would include as I was uncertain of if we would be able to tell. They stated if he usually opens his eyes during his assessment and all the sudden quits or if he usually is awake when mom or dad are talking to him and he just starts sleeping through it that's another indicator. So Travis and I basically will be assessing for typical personality things while the nurses (since they're not necessarily with them daily) will assess for medical signs and symptoms.

The nurse this morning referred to Tennyson and his roommate at feeder and grower babies which excited me a bit because that means we're less critical. Last night there was a new arrival of a very small baby and there was discussion of putting him with Tennyson because until that time we were the smallest and sickest (that's how they refer to the most critical) in the unit at the time. Somehow overnight we moved up to a grower and feeder however which is exciting to me. His feeds were also increased another 2 ML and his TPN levels were reduced so all those things are again blessings.

God sure is going to use this little guy in ways beyond what we can imagine and He's sure teaching his parents to trust in Him above all things, with all aspects of our lives as pretty much everything has been put on hold at this time. Travis and I were discussing the other day how amazing it is that God placed in parents (and people in general) an ability to love something or someone that they've just met beyond what they ever imagined.

In learning about RSV (and RSV season) and that Tennyson will be unable to leave our home once we're there until after May of 2008 we've come to the realization that we're going to have to lean on each other and mostly on the Lord more than we've ever had to before because Tennyson's underdeveloped immunity will be unable to handle any viruses/bacterias he comes in contact with and it's our responsiblity to keep that little miracle protected. We're just learning so many things every day and being blessed by the care we're receiving here at Freeman, it's amazing how much care Travis and I have received above and beyond what little Tennyson is getting.

Anyways just a brief update, hopefully the Ronald McDonald houses' internet will be working tonight and we can update after his Kangaroo care with daddy again this evening.

Thanks for all the prayers and love you guys.

In His Arms-
Travis, Lindsay & Tennyson