Countdown

Well, friends, Samuel has rocked it this week. He is growing stronger each day and proving what a tough little dude he is. His feeding tube is now out and he's getting all his meals from breast and bottle. It's so nice to see his little angel face without a bunch of stuff taped onto it. HUGE accomplishment that puts him on the road to coming home. His nurse practitioner advised us today to celebrate our wedding anniversary early, as he could be home in a week. A WEEK!!! We are thrilled and terrified at the same time. We have also discovered The Village Pub will hook us up with a to go order. I can't think of any better way to celebrate our anniversary than hangin' at home (HOME!) with our little guy, celebrating all he's accomplished. It's been a tough, but good year.

Sam's suck/swallow/breathe skills have definitely gotten better, but he still has occasional desats and bradys that seem to be related to eating. The key is he needs to be able to recover on his own (even term babies brady) without any intervention, oxygen, etc. He's begun doing this, but needs to maintain for at least 5 days straight. Yesterday was day 1. The countdown begins.

Also, instead of eating every 3 hours, he's now being fed on demand. This means WAAAAHHHHH!!! = FOOD! He wakes up, screams a little and tries to eat his hand. We feed him and let him eat as much as he wants. The docs are monitoring closely to ensure he's still eating enough and gaining the proper amount of weight (currently 6lbs 13oz!!!). He's been guzzling down like a frat boy, so no issues there.

His little eyeballs are still looking good today after his weekly eye exam. The vessels are still immature, so he will continue to be examined weekly until they are mature, which should be just a couple of weeks, hopefully. The exams are so unpleasant, I'm hoping he can kick that to the curb very soon. It's so distressing to hear him scream from the discomfort. It makes my heart ache for him.

I was warned I would become huge a crybaby. Boy, you guys weren't lyin'. I cry at EVERYTHING. One of my biggest bawls came after this Father's Day commercial.

Damn you, Hallmark! I had to rewind the commercial so Steve could see it. The end, where the Dad comes in and says, "Com'ere!" and the little girl jumps into his arms just slays me. Through snorty, snotty tears, I said to Steve, "Sam is gonna love you that much!!! WAHHHHHHH!!! "

I bawled at a diaper commercial showing a micro preemie like Sam, 3 months early. Seeing that tiny little girl, just tugged at my heart.

I hear songs that make me think of Sam and just sob. :::sigh::: I'm a Mommy. I've already abandoned lip gloss since I kiss him a million times a day. Mascara should probably go too. I've ended up with raccoon eyes on more than one occasion.

We need to give big time thanks to my cousin Jay and his awesome wife, Tami. After 2 beautiful girls, they had enough baby gear to open a store. We are the lucky recipients of ALOT of that stuff. Thanks, you guys! You have been crazy generous and we appreciate it so, so much! We look forward to babysitting for, like, a thousand hours to re-pay you. Tell Jada we'll let her drive :)

I hope next week, I'm writing to let you know our sweet boy is home. Can you believe the finish line is so freakin' close??!! Wooo hooooo!