Almost there...

So Ethan has still been doing really good. We have started checking a few things off the discharge list! Yeah... I never thought it would come! We have watched the 3 videos that are required of us to watch. One is Elijah's story (a sad story about shaken baby syndrome), a car seat safety video, and cpr. CPR. Yes, I have done classes in the past but now watching the video I was a little bit more into it knowing that I have a baby that may need me to save him! Ahh, scary! Oh and the car seat. We have it sitting in his room so that the nurses could check it over to make sure it is safe. Ahh, the car seat. I have been dreaming of the day that we walk out of the nicu with the car seat and our little man in it! Circumcision. Yes we need to have this done yet. If Ethan was born when he was term it would have been done before we left the hospital. Well now we have a little bit different plan. He has hernias still that need to be repaired but they can't do that until he is 50 weeks gestation so we will have the hernias repaired with the circumcision (2-4-1 deal ;) So good thing is is that we don't have to worry about it now but bad news is is that he will need to have a surgical procedure done in September.

This morning Ethan decided to pull out his feeding tube before they gave him his vitamins. The nurse was going to put it back in but I said well lets just give him his meds by the bottle and then I will nurse him since this is how we will do it when we are at home. So when we talked to the Dr. about what the plan was for today she decided we should try to keep it out. So that means breast feeding when I am there and bottle when I am not. Sounds like a good plan to be but some nurses I don't trust giving him a bottle. Yeah call me crazy but remember when he was put back on the ventilator a few weeks back... well right before that he was getting the bottle from nurses and I never saw it. SO it makes me a little nervous. The nurse that is on tonight though I am completely comfortable with so we are just praying he does well with it. Have I mentioned that he LOVES his swing! I am SO glad we have the same one at home... I have a feeling it is going to be a life saver! He has been crying a little more over the last few days but I think it is just because he is nursing and he doesn't eat as much as with a bottle so he gets hungry sooner. I am being stubborn and sticking with the 3 hour care times to feed him though. I don't want him to get in the habit of eating every 2 hours. Call me mean but really... can you imagine having to get up, feed for an hour and then lay down for another hour and then start all over again... hmmm nah, I will stick with 3 hours ;) Mark and I also met a friend of ours for lunch. She was a NICU mom that left me a few weeks ago ;) It was good to see her and Ellie... they seem to be doing great and loving their monitor. Ellie went home on a monitor that Ethan will go home on. I have been thinking how nice it will be to have that monitor to know that we have something telling us if he stops breathing. Kathy confirmed to me that it is nice. Sure we were both saying we didn't want to take our babies home on a monitor but in reality we are both thinking that it is a good thing.