Eli, Noah, and Amanda

Sorry that its been a while since my last post. Things have been rather hectic here with Noah home, Amanda dealing with her infection, and trying to visit Eli at the hospital. I've included an update on all three of my favorite people. Eli Eli has been doing well since the last update. As of yesterday he is off the vent! We were incredibly excited to see him transition off the vent to a cannula. They took off his cannula earlier this morning and so far he is doing OK breathing on his own. The surgeons used some contrast dye to look at his esophagus and they said everything looks good so far. He does have quite a bit of reflux, but they've given him some medicine for that. Also, this morning he got his first bath since being born. We're pretty excited about this as well (the nurse was too). Amanda is visiting him right now as I stay here with Noah so we might have some more information to post after she gets back. She gets to hold Eli for the first time today - it's been almost three weeks and as of this morning she still hadn't gotten to hold him in her arms. Noah Noah has struggled a little bit since coming home from the hospital. He had really bad gas and was generally angry at the whole circumcision thing and pretty much didn't sleep and eat as much as he needed to. Earlier this week, we met with the pediatrician and they were pretty concerned when they discovered he had lost weight since coming home. They put him on a stricter eating regimen and we're going back tomorrow so they can weigh him again. Feeding him has been somewhat of a struggle because he generally is not that interested in the bottle. He will eat a little bit and then start crying when we try to make him eat more. He has been getting better though at eating - especially the last 24 hours and so we're pretty confident he will have gained some weight since his earlier appointment. Feeding him every 2 hours though does have its disadvantages. The first couple of nights we barely slept at all. Last night we decided to do shifts of 4 hours on / 4 hours off and it worked pretty well. I think we're slowly getting the hang of it. I've been trying to do most of Noah's care as Amanda has to deal with her infection as well as make milk for both Noah and Eli (now that Eli will soon be able to eat a larger amount). Amanda Amanda spent yesterday afternoon in an operating room waiting to get her mastitis cut open and then packed with gauze. She came home pretty sore and was pretty sore this morning. The surgeon said she was shocked at how much puss had built up inside. It literally spurted out when the surgeon cut the infected area open. Her wound completely soaked through with blood and puss last night. I didn't even want to look at it. She went in today to get it repacked at UK clinic. She was pretty nervous about that. We'll see how it went later when she gets home. Considering all that she has been through of late Amanda has been taking each trial with an amazing amount of patience and courage. I'm reminded constantly of why I'm lucky to have married her. Please continue to keep her in your prayers along with Eli and Noah. This is all I've got for now. We'll try to keep you updated on how things are going. Now that Amanda and I each got a little bit of sleep last night we're a little more equipped to write coherently.

(We thought this was cute - Noah rocking out in his sleep)