It is Sunday morning, and I just got back from a quick morning trip to the hospital. We are currently staying about 25 minutes away from the hospital (and still keeping our ears open for someplace closer.) Drew was squirmy this morning. I don't know if he was uncomfortable, or just being active. I would think he must be uncomfortable with all the sensors that are attached to him.Drew is still not digesting mothers milk very well. They pump milk through a tube into his stomach, and then at the next scheduled feeding, they suction his stomach to see if there is any milk left in it, and there usually is. I think he has digested a little, but it is an area of slow development for him.

Last night they put a "picline" in, which is a replacement for the regular IV needle. It goes in at his knee, and they slide it up a vein until it gets close to his heart. It apparently is more comfortable than an IV and more stable.We had a little scare yesterday. Gracie was doing kangaroo care (which is skin to skin cuddling) and some condensed moisture came up his vapotherm into his nose. This happens a lot, and usually he just swallows it, and is fine. But this time he started choking. His vital signs went down rapidly, his heart rate dropping from his normal rate of about 140bpm down to 70bpm. The nurse got him back into the NICU baby bed, and suctioned out his throat, and he was fine. Parenting can be an adrenaline rush.

Gracie and I are trying to figure out a daily routine that will let us do everything that we need to in a day, which is not very similar to our normal day just one week ago. Gracie is pumping milk about every 3 hours, so we have to be near a pump, either at our hotel or at the hospital every 3 hours. We are trying to be at the hospital at least a couple of hours in the morning, and a couple of hours in the evening. The doctors make their rounds on Drew sometime between 10-12am, so we like to be there so that we can talk to them. And we have the normal things like groceries, cleaning or room, laundry, eating, working(I am going to be working as much as I can to keep up with the office stuff that I would normally be doing at the office on the construction project)...and all without having our normal things around us. So it is taking us awhile to get settled. Please pray mostly for Drew, and his continued improvement, and a little for us that we would figure out what our life is supposed to be looking like during this phase.

Thanks again for the prayers and notes.