Look at those eyes!

Graham is doing really well. Right now he is being fed 3 bottles each day and the rest of his feedings go through this lovely feeding tube.

He is almost able to drink the entire 3 bottles so the Dr. might change his feeding to more bottles each day which would be great. He can't leave the hospital until he is able to drink 8 entire bottles. There is no way to tell how long it will take him to be able to get to the point where he can drink 8 bottles but we are hoping it is soon!! The Dr. said Graham is just weak from his "rough start" into the world and will slowly gain strength each day to be able to drink more. Lots of times he falls asleep while I am feeding him and it is hard to wake him back up.


I have been able to go up every day and feed him one of his bottles which is so fun. He likes us visiting him a lot and even smiled for us the other day!
We cannot get enough of holding Graham, but unfortunately we are only allowed to hold him for about an hour during each visit. It is so hard to put him down!

The last few visits we have been with him he has been really alert. Yesterday he was awake for the full 2 hours we were there!! It was so great. It makes it reeeaaallly hard to leave him when he is sitting there with his eyes wide open though.
I have been bringing clothes for him to wear each day and I get to dress him while I'm there which is so fun. I am happy he gets to wear all these clothes because thanks to Megan and Debbie, I have an entire closet full that are just waiting to be put to use.
I am still trying to post the millions of video's I have, but for some reason, blogger won't let me and photo bucket wouldn't either so I am going to have to have Elliot help me and maybe I'll be able to put them up tonight.

Dumb blogger still won't let me post video's

So I still can't post any of the video's I've made. Hopefully later today I can put them up. If blogger still isn't working, I will try to put them up through you tube. I got some really cute ones so I'm excited for everyone to see them.

Graham has been officially moved to the intermediate status in the NICU!! So only a little mor progress and he will be home! Last night we went up and Elliot finally go to hold Graham for awhile. He was only supposed to be able to hold him for 1/2 hr. but the nurse was so nice and let Elliot hold him while he was being fed! They just put the food in through the tube that goes up his nose and down into his stomach. So Elliot got to hold him for a whole hour! I was definitely jealous.

I called the hospital this morning and they said Graham had a really good night and is not having any more problems breathing which is great. They are giving him a bottle three times a day and he is doing better with it but is only drinking about 1/3 of the entire bottle so he will have to work on that. I get to go up today at 5:00 and hold him for awhile and they said I can feed him his bottle!! and change his diaper!!! Am I the first mother on earth who is ecstatic to be changing a diaper? I can't wait.

As for me, I am feeling really great. I feel like I am healing a little bit more each day which is wonderful. I still have about a 4-5 month pregnant belly but that should go down in time (right? RIGHT??) Hopefully by the time Graham comes home I will feel pretty good and be able to tend to him without too much pain.
He is so perfect to me! I love that he still has all that hair. I thought for sure it would fall out.

Let's try this again

Ok, yesterday I posted a blog with a video and I was in such a hurry, I posted the wrong video and had to run off to the hospital before I had a chance to check it! So I hope everyone enjoyed the 2 second video of Elliot's dad's shoe before I deleted it. I just tried to download some more video's but it isn't working right now so I will try again later. I have 3 really good ones so hopefully it works.He is doing really well!! I'm so grateful for everyone who has us and him in their prayers. They are obviously working. On Tuesday they took Graham off the respirator and put him on some oxygen just going into his nose. Then yesterday when I got to the hospital to see him, the nurse had a surprise for me and was taking him off of the arterial (sp?) line in his arm which meant I could hold him for the first time!!! I have never been so happy in my life (ok, my wedding day was pretty close, don't worry Elliot). I got to hold him for almost 1/2 hour. At first he was crying but after a few minutes he quieted down and fell right asleep. I like to think he was just as excited to have me hold him as I was. We make a pretty great pair. They have taken him off the morphine now because he doesn't need it anymore and it is so fun to see him cry and move around and be alert. I was able to see him open his eyes all the way! Every new thing is so cool to be there for. This whole experience has definitely made me so grateful for every new thing we get to experience with him, probably just like every new mom I would imagine.

Elliot was still at school when I was there holding him, so he unfortunately missed out on that, but we went back to the hospital later that night and he got a chance to hold him too. It was only for a few minutes because there was a new baby brought into the NICU and anytime a new baby comes in, everyone else in the NICU has to leave so they can tend to that baby. Even though it was only for a few minutes, Elliot was still sooo happy. I didn't get any video's of that but we are going back tonight and I will of course get a bunch more pictures.

So for right now, we can hold Graham a little bit each day (can't hold him too much right now because it would be over stimulating right now while he is trying to get better still) and he will stay on the oxygen under his nose for today and if he is doing well, they will take him off of it sometime today or maybe tomorrow. After that comes off, they will start feeding him with a bottle if that goes well, I will get to nurse him!! He also has to stay on antibiotics until Saturday and if everything is going great and he is progressing as fast as he has been, the nurse said Sunday would be the earliest we could take him home, but it will probably be more likely on Monday or Tuesday. So that is wonderful!!! So soon! I am so excited. I will keep updating as soon as I find out anything else and be prepared to be bombarded with more video's and pictures.

Baby update

We are able to see Graham almost anytime we want during the day. The NICU is closed for a few hours each day for shift changes, but besides those few hours, we can go down and visit any other time. It's hard for me to stand for very long so we usually go down a few times each day and stay for about 20 minutes each time. Before we go in we have to wash our hands for 3 minutes with a scrub brush. We're either going to have some pretty clean or extremely raw hands by the time we leave this hospital :)
The Dr. said today that Graham is doing better. He was on blood pressure medication yesterday and they were able to take him off of it today. They also did a spinal tap on him this morning to check for any infections and that will take a few days to fully check but as far as they can tell right now, it looks like he doesn't have any infections that they can see which is great.

They also said that they have begun the process of weaning him off the respirator. They don't know how long this process will take, but it is a good start. We just got back from seeing him tonight and it was so great! He was really alert and we got to see him open his eyes for the first time. He looked right at us!! It was awesome. Then he put his little hand around Elliot's finger and held it. I thought we were going to have to ask for a bed to be put in there because Elliot wasn't about to go anywhere while Graham was holding on to him. It was really precious. I am so mad I didn't think to bring the camera!! Even though we haven't been able to hold him yet, we are feeling more and more bonded with him everyday. He is the most beautiful thing either of us have ever seen.

Elliot's family has come up everyday to see us and Graham. They are a great support for us and it's so wonderful that they can be close by. My family unfortunately lives further away but they call everyday and are just as wonderful about everything and just as concerned for Graham's health. We feel really lucky to have so many people that care about us so much.

Graham's video debut!!

One more for your viewing pleasure