FRIDAY!!!!

The plan is..... TO BE DISCHARGED FRIDAY!!! :) So I'll go back to Monday. Monday was supposed to be his swallow study but whoever took the order forgot to order it, so they didn't have any openings when our nurse called Monday morning so they ordered it for Tuesday. So monday basically we just hung out and took things easy. Monday night he started throwing up about every four hours bright yellow/green bile, and lots of it. They just decided to watch it until after his swallow study Tuesday. So Tuesday was a busy day, he was still throwing up so it was just patience until the study. The study was at 12:50 and he passed! He threw up during the study and that made the speech therapist kinda concerned. Because he passed he was able to start getting food into his belly after nothing in there for 2 weeks! So first they taught me how to place a feeding tube, once that was placed they started out by doing a very low continuous drip through the feeding tube into his belly, he handled that very well and hasn't thrown up since!! So today at 8am they started bolus feeds. They stared by doing 32ml anhour every 2 hours. They did that until 6 tonight and now at 9 they just started doing 5oml an hour every 3 hours. If he tolerates this well then in the morning speech therapy will come and we will start giving him a bottle! If he tolerates all that well and gets up to goal feeds they will send us home FRIDAY! He has to be on high calorie formula called pregestimil and it has to be concentrated to 27 calories. Breastmilk and formula is 20 calories. They do that because they say these heart babies have a really hard time gaining weight then that affects their next surgery and they have a harder time recovering from it. When we go home he will have to be on quarantine. They've told us until at least the second surgery no church, grocery store or anywhere where there will be people. His next surgery we are thinking will be sometime around february or march. We appreciate everyone and hope you will respect that we are going to be very limited on people coming to visit until the next surgery, because we cannot afford to have M get sick because if he gets sick at all in that time period he will have to come back and be hospitalized until he gets better. If you want to help out one way you could is if R will have playdates have him over to play sometimes if your kiddos are not sick so he can maintain somewhat of a normal life because I took him out of preschool/daycare. So I feel bad keeping him inside without kids his age all winter long. We feel we have the best family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and ward! We are so blessed to have so many people who care about us and have helped us get through this all! I'm going to end this with a heart poem. Thanks to everyone again!

It's a beautiful day up in Heaven. Jesus is rounding up his tiniest angels, to go live on Earth, and be born. One of the sweetest angels says to Jesus, "I don't want to leave, I like it here, and I will miss you." He reassures the scared little angel that everything will be okay, and that he is just going for a visit. he is still not swayed on this idea. So Jesus kneels down, and says, "How about if you leave half of your heart here with me and take the other half with you, will that be okay?" The angel smiles and says, "I guess that will work." But the little angel is still a little scared. he asks, "Will I be okay with only half of my heart?" Jesus replies, "Of course you will, I have other angels there that will help out, and you will be fine." Then Jesus gives the angel more details about his plan. He says, "When you are born, your mommy will be scared, so you have to be strong, and when you feel weak just remember that I have the other half of your heart. Enjoy your time with your family, play and laugh everyday. And when it's time to come back to heaven, I will make your heart whole again. Always remember that you are not broken, just torn between two loves."