thursday night report

We are 79 days into this journey. Some days go faster than others. Now that we've seemed to hit a plateau, most days just seem boring and uneventful. We like those kind of days.

These days there's not too much going on over in bedspace 24 of the step-down unit. Pierce is doing well and working on his bottle-feeding skills so that he can come home with us soon. He is now up to 3 bottles/day and he gets 40mL at each feeding. Today he is 35-weeks corrected age. That's right, just 5 weeks shy of the magical 40-week mark. It's hard to believe that had he not come early, I would have been waddling around anxiously awaiting his birth. Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about what that would have been like. What would it be like to have the nursery and our house prepared for him? To attend my baby shower and be uncomfortably large? And what about those late night cravings and braxton-hicks contractions? Oh, the dreams. But then I snap out of it. I remember how blessed I am. Those meaningless little things I sometimes long for, they're worthless. If I had carried Pierce to full-term, we wouldn't be where we are at today. Quite frankly, we wouldn't be the people we now are. We wouldn't be as mature, or as grateful. We've been seasoned by the trials of this life, and have come out with a different outlook on things. I'm sure that if Pierce were to be a standard 40-weeker, I would've been complaining about stretch marks, breastfeeding and lack of sleep. But what an appreciation for life we have now! And how we love watching what God is doing in and through our story.

Nik and I are starting to get excited about Pierce's homecoming. Things are being prepared. Clothes are starting to get washed and the nursery is slowly (I think I'm following Pierce's pace and taking "micropreemie" steps with this one) coming together. Speaking of the homecoming, it looks as if Pierce may avoid both a shunt and ROP laser surgery. The verdict is still out on both of these, but it appears that for now, both issues are resolving themselves. Also, they are thinking that he has a hydrocele instead of a hernia (a common issue where fluid drains through the abdominal openings). This would be great as it would likely mean no surgery as well! Our prayer lately has been that Pierce would be able to avoid any further surgeries and that he would get home to us soon. If he does in fact avoid surgeries as well as any other infection/complication, Pierce could very well come home to us around his due date- August 4th. {*Insert loud shouts for joy!}

Some of my dear friends are helping us get ready for his arrival... they bought him a carseat! Special thanks to Ashlyn, Becky, Brandy, Sarah, Erin and Christy for getting Pierce his first "cool" ride. :) I know he will love it. And the NICU nurses can now stop asking me to get his carseat ready for him. Haha!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We continue to be blown away by everyone's generosity and love.

Much love,
Lindsay