Touchdown!!

Luke's Touchdown Dance

Hello again!  We are still in the hospital and waiting for Luke to get a bit better before we head home.  It's Sunday night at midnight, and we've been here since Friday morning at 5:30am.  It's been a looooong weekend.

Luke is in the CCN, which is a continuing care nursery that is a transitional step between the NICU (where he spent the first night) and coming home with us.  He has made progress each day, but basically, the birth was so traumatic for him, he is just still in a bit of a shock.  He just doesn't have the energy to run all of his metabolic systems, as well as feed and cry and do everything else too, so he just sleeps a lot.  We get daily updates from the doctoral staff here at St. Vincent Womens (they are all FANTASTIC), and he is making progress each day.

Right now, there are two things preventing him from coming home.  First, he had an abnormal CBC that showed some elevated levels of white blood cells and signs of infection, so he's on antibiotics for that.  We're hoping that's cleared up by the morning.  Second, he has to be able to eat on his own.  Currently, hes getting all of his nutrition from IV fluids, and in order to go home he has to be able to breast feed.  We've tried a couple times, and while we've had some success, usually he's just flat out too sleepy to eat.

It's been tough for us not being able to hold him at all and having to limit our family and friends from seeing him, but we are getting through it and know that everyone really just wants what's best for Luke.  Kara has had some separation issues, which is totally understandable, and I just really wish that I could hold him without IVs and monitors and all kinds of crap.

However, that being said, he is the most perfect baby I've ever seen.  I can't stop smiling....I just love him so much.  He looks just like my baby pictures, and I am just absolutely floored that we finally have the son that we've wanted for so long.

Special thanks to our family and friends who have visited, brought meals, watched over our house and Dexter, been supportive and loving, prayed for us, and most of all, understood when we just needed time to ourselves.  We all, including Luke, love you guys.