Getting closer

Baby Drew had his x-ray Thursday to test how much his esophagus has grown. He only needs to grow one vertebrae length to be where he needs to be. The Dr. is planning to schedule surgery for the middle of April, then approximately two weeks recovery, depending on if everything goes good and he passes the requirments to leave the hospital. There is an end in sight. Yeah!!!
Drew does have some redness on his stomach around the feeding tube, and they are worried he might have an infection. He is on some new antibiotics to help clear the infection, hopefully! They drew some blood and they are watching it for culture. We should know in a few days what it is.
Drew is very handsome, the nurses took a vote and said he is the cutiest baby in the NICU. All the nurses have to stop and look and his big eyes everytime they walk by. His eyes are changing color they are looking more hazel now. He loves to suck on his pacifier quite a bit. We're hoping it will help with his eating later down the road.

Tyler had a touch of the flu this week and spent a lot of time cuddling with Mom, which is uncommon for Ty. It is rare to see him not so busy. By the weekend he was back to himself and into everything and openning doors to go outside and play. Tyler is going to go home with Dad for a week to spend more time with him and let Mom spend more time with Drew. We all need a change.

Ryan and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend and got to spend a night up Ogden canyon in a cabin. It felt good to get away. Even though it was short, it was nice!

An in minor parent news, Melissa slammed her finger in the car door today. She thought she broke it, it hurt so bad, but she thinks it's ok now. Just two nice cuts in the top and some throbbing now.

Halfway through March

Baby Drew is doing well. Sorry it's been a while since I updated. Last Monday (3/9) he had a CT scan to check for any fluid in his chest. It looked really good, and there were no remaining pockets of fluid. Thursday the surgeon had an x-ray taken while he stuck a dialator down Drew's throat to measure the growth of the 'pouch'. It didn't show much growth, but I'm not really accepting it. It wasn't a great x-ray. This week they want to do the same thing again while putting dye into his stomach. This will accomplish two things. First, we will find out if there is still an opening where the milk got into Drew's chest before. Hopefully it will be closed this time. (It's been three weeks since they did this the dye test last). Also the upper and lower portions of his esophagus will be highlighted in the x-ray, so they'll know better how much distance is really between the two.
Otherwise we're still thinking growing thoughts. Drew hasn't been putting on weight the last week or so. They increased calories again yesterday, so hopefully tonight he will have gained.
Tyler is doing great. He's been very busy, as usual. He fell off the bed, and his face hit the nightstand on the way to the floor, so he had a pretty nice black eye. It's still healing, but looking much better. He also has the last of his teeth coming in, so he's had lots of drool. He's had a runny nose too, but I am not sure if that's because of teeth or a cold.
Last weekend Tyler and I went home for a night. It was so nice to be home, even for a little bit. I loved seeing my friends. I was even happy for the funny smell of my apartment, just because that's home.
The good news is that we're getting closer everyday. We're each doing well overall, and we are making it little by little.

What a Great Weekend

We had a new adventure yesterday and took Tyler to the zoo for the first time. Grandpa Steve and Grandma "Shell" were up for the weekend, as well as Ryan. We took Tyler to the hospital so that he wouldn't have to be left behind while we visited Drew. Because you can only have two people at the bedside at a time, Tyler could be with us at the hospital at least. There is a playroom at the hospital for patients and siblings, and Tyler really enjoyed playing there.
We also learned from visiting the playroom that we have free zoo passes for life because of Drew's time in the hospital. So we took advantage of them.
Tyler really liked seeing the monkey's and elephants. We had a good time pointing the animals out, and before long Tyler would say "Whasat?" It was really fun to have an outing with Tyler.

Drew was wide awake when we arrived yesterday to visit!! He has been keeping the night nurses busy this week and crying from about two until after seven AM. Then when I get there he's been sleeping like a rock. But he's decided to change that routine, I guess, and was up looking around for more than an hour. Today (Sunday) he only slept for a half an hour of the three hours Ryan and I were there!! And after two weeks we got to hold him again. We haven't been holding him because he still has the chest tube, which can be very painful. He's did pretty well, and didn't seem bothered by us moving him.
He started getting feedings again last night. They are putting food in through a new tube that goes through his stomach into his small intestine. IV fluids are very hard on the liver and the intestines stop working if they aren't used, so this is better for him overall. Plus he won't feel hungry all the time. We learned that hunger is actually triggered by hormones as well as the stomach, so having food in his intestines will trigger hormones to help him not feel hungry.
He's up to 7 lbs 10 oz now!! In another week they will repeat the dye test to check if the esophagus has healed and closed again, and if it has they will remove the chest tube. And in about three weeks, if all goes well, he will be ready for his repair. Hooray!! The days go by quickly, but I am so looking forward to taking my little boys home and being together. I've never wanted a family picture so badly. I can't wait to sit on the couch with Ryan holding one kiddo and me the other. I will take all the sleepless nights coming with more gratitude than I ever could have imagined.
Although it's been a long road, I know the Lord is aware of us and looking after us. Thank you again for all of your support and prayers.