Austin is one week old!

My mom's first time holding Austin

Jer's first time holding Austin

Austin's monitors. From my understanding, the 100 is the oxygen levels in his blood. 100 was good. This is measured by a monitor on his foot. The 152 and 154 are both heart rate (from sensors on his chest), and the 41 is his breaths per minute (from a sensor on his tummy). Now he averages about 60 breaths per minute, but he varies quite a bit.

Lex's nap time last Thursday while I was still in the hospital.

My parents sent these flowers and I thought they were so pretty!

Hi! It is Emily again. In just two hours, Austin will be one week old! I absolutely adore that kid! He is still in the NICU, but he is showing some great improvements. I really hope he'll get to come home in a few days.

I got back from the hospital on Friday night, and we have a sort of routine going on for visiting and checking on Austin. We get up, call in and check with his nurse to find out how he is doing, then head out to visit him in the afternoon and deliver the milk I've pumped for him. It is an hour's drive each way to the hospital, so we can only go once a day. We spend a few hours there, then come back home. Lex isn't allowed to go and see Austin (he still hasn't laid eyes on him), so we take turns sitting with Lex in the family waiting room. Later that night we call his night nurse to check on him again. Then the next day starts!

Jer is back at work this week, but luckily my mom is here for a visit! I love having her here. She is very helpful and fun to be around.

So, back to Austin. He is still in need of pressure in order to breathe, but he no longer needs oxygen. He was able to start bottle feeding instead of tube feeding this weekend. Yesterday when Iwas visiting the doctor came by and told me that Austin could nurse. He did so well! I was concerned that he wouldn't be able to nurse after all that bottle feeding. Anyway, it really made my day.

I'll post more pictures soon. I sure hope in a few days I can add some "coming home" photos for him! Below is a short video of Austin breathing a few days ago so you can see why he needed help. He was averaging 2 breaths per second.