Rooming In

-We arrived at the hospital today around 3 p.m., we walked into the NICU with nervous anticipation knowing that it would be the last time we walked through the doors to "scrub up" and "visit Daniel". We met with the Apria Healthcare rep (Apria is the home health agency supplying Daniel's o2 tanks, apnea monitor and pulse-ox monitor). We were trained on how to use the o2 tanks and the monitors. We took Daniel off all the hospital's monitors and hooked him up to the monitors that we will use at home. We said goodbye to the day shift nurses and headed to our room for the night. The nurses said that Daniel was "all ours" but that they would be there at the "push of a button". Richard headed out to get some supper and to pick up a few things at Wal Mart. I loved having Daniel all to myself for a few minutes. We met with one of the many doctors that had cared for Daniel (Dr. Campbell. She went over all the discharge instructions and all the follow up appointments (slightly overwhelming). All the day staff nurses came to say goodbye again before heading home. We have grown so close to the NICU nurses and the OB nurses and we shed some tears as we said our goodbyes. We gave each of the nurses a "nurse angel pin" and a thank you note to show our appreciation for taking such great care of Daniel and loving Daniel in their own special way. We are looking forward to walking out of Southern Hills Medical Center with our baby boy tomorrow.

Chubby Cheeks

-Daniel has chubby baby cheeks! Daniel's current weight is 3 pounds, 13 ounces.....4 more ounces and we will have a heavy weight (4 pounder). Daniel is doing very well, just eating and growing. There is one minor complication.....he is having to be reminded to breathe when he eats. They are going to do a blood count tomorrow to see if Daniel is anemic. If he is he will get another blood transfusion to "perk him up" and hopefully help with his breathing.

Eating and Growing

-Daniel is eating and growing! His feedings are up to 32ccs every 3 hours (30ccs equals 1 ounce). He is still working on eating and breathing (suck,swallow,breathe), he gets 2 bottle feedings a day and the rest of his feeds are through a NG tube. He has started to show signs of hunger and he is not really patient and thinks he should not have to wait to eat. He seems to think that he deserves ALL the attention and will "make" his alarms ring every time his nurses start to give other babies attention.
-We have said this many times and really we can't say enough how thankful we are for all the prayers that have been said for Daniel and continue to be said for Daniel. We could not have made it this far without all the prayers and support that we have.
-All the eating is paying off.....Daniel now weighs 3.5 pounds!