Nesting

I have been nesting! Cleaning and organizing and driving Ken crazy!! If everything goes as planned Jack is supposed to come home on Thursday!! I am very excited and scared and everything in between!! Jack will be coming home on oxygen (only 1/4 liter) and will need a machine to monitor his oxygen levels at home. Wednesday night Ken and I will spend the night at the hospital - they call it "rooming in." Jack will spend the night with us and we will be responsible for all his care and make sure we are comfortable with his oxygen and machines. Tomorrow I will take his car seat up the the hospital to get it approved. Jack will also do a car seat test. The nurses put the babies in their car seat and they stay in them as long as it takes to get home. The test is done to make sure the babies can tolerate being in the car seat. We only live 20 minutes away from the hospital so he should do good. Today he is taking all feeds by bottle and no tube feeds. He is doing a very good job eating and finishing most bottles in around 15 minutes. He is now weighing 4lbs and 9 oz!

Luke is doing good but he wasn't feeling too good today. He was very lethargic and was dropping his heart rate and oxygen levels. Usually when he drops his levels it is because he is mad and throwing a fit but today he was perfectly still and dropping them. His oxygen had to be turned up to 73% when I left today. They doctors changed some of his vent setting and rechecked a blood gas an hour later and it still was not very good. I am sure more vent setting changes are on the way. When I left Luke was acting a little better. He was peeking open his eyes and stirring more. His pulse ox was better too. Please pray that he was just having a bad day and that he is not backsliding and getting sick. He needs to continue to get bigger and stronger and be illness free. He is doing good on feeds. He is up to 7mls an hour through his feeding tube. He is still IV free!! He has been off his nitric since Friday and the echocardiogram was better on Friday! The eye doctors came last week and his eyes were much better!! His eyes were right where they should be for his age.

Yesterday my mom and dad brought over the boys' baby furniture and got the room arranged. The dressers were my grandfathers and when he died we took them. They were pretty beaten up so we decided to refinish them. They came out amazing!! Ken and I got the beginning sanding done but my wonderful dad did the rest. He is so handy and does very good work. We finished the dressers in a dark cherry finish to match the cribs. I will post some pictures soon. I have been majorly nesting the past couple days. There is so much to do! We got a new vacuum cleaner the other day and I am disgusted at how much our other vacuum did not clean! Just our bedroom filled the whole compartment with carpet lint, hair, and dust. GROSS. I washed our curtains and as I was transferring them into the dryer I noticed the tag that said "Professional Dry Cleaning Only." Oops! But they don't look too bad. We put a pack and play up in the living room. That was a very frustrating thing to do. It took us about 45 minutes to get all the accessories on it but it looks good now and shouldn't fall apart the first time we use it. I am pretty sure we put it up right!

I am ready to get Jack home but it will be really hard to leave Luke behind. I am comforted that he has AMAZING WONDERFUL nurses taking care of him--especially his primary nurses Lindsey and James! I wish they were there 7 days a week! I know that he is in good hands but it will be hard not to be able to go see him anytime. I will have to wait until someone can watch Jack so I can run up to see Luke. I thought I was tired and busy now!

Thanks for the prayers and thank you for those who are bringing us meals. I really feel so undeserving of such love and thoughtfulness! We had meals after the babies were born and now we are blessed with people bringing us meals again. Thank you so much for your generosity. We are so lucky and grateful to belong to a church that is more concerned about others over themselves! I can not wait to show someone the same kind of love and generosity and concern that our friends and church family have bestowed on us. Thank you for being an example of God's love to our family.

Prayer requests:
Luke feeling better and not getting sick. Some of his electrolytes and blood gasses are out of balance so those need to correct themselves. That his lungs get better and he is strong enough to come off the ventilator soon.
Jack coming home and that Ken and I can take adequate care of him! Jack not getting sick when he encounters the real world and keeps eating well and growing.
Ken and I staying healthy and getting enough rest (I know that resting is pushing it!!) and we figure out our job situations and budget issues!