Day 22 - Three Weeks Old!!

Today Zachary turned three weeks old!!! He is such an amazing little boy. We just love to spend time with him and watch him. At tonight's weigh in, he topped the scales at a mighty two pounds, 3.6 ounces. He's doing so well. Today he switched back to breastmilk and so far (knocking on wood here), he hasn't spit up and has not had an episode where his heart rate and oxygen levels go down. In fact, when we left tonight, he was only getting 31% oxygen, which is quite an improvement over the 42% he was getting when we arrived this morning.

Zachary is starting to stay awake more and more, especially when we hold him. The time when he is awake and we can see little snippets of his personality are just so precious to us. He has this thing, we call it "playing possum" where he opens his eyes and after a couple of seconds of us watching him, it seems like he closes his eyes extra tight, like he is pretending to sleep. We are too far away for him to see us watching him, but it sure seems like he is playing games with us. It's so cute. This next tidbit may fall under the category of TMI, but it's too cute not to share. One of his nurses has dubbed him "Prince Poop A Lot." Boys will be boys!!! Tonight he thought his nurse would appreciate it if he pooped while she was giving him a bath. She didn't seem to mind too much though.

Zachary's little NICU neighbor, Brinson, is doing well. Yes folks, she peed!!! Thanks so much for adding her to your prayers. She still has much healing and growing to do, but her peeing was the much needed first step. Stephen and I had a nice dinner with her folks, Ned and Lisa, tonight. It was after Brinson's good news and Zachary was doing so well so it was a nice night to get out and enjoy chatting with our new friends. After dinner we all came back to the NICU to good reports which was nice.

We really appreciate Marie and David for letting us stay with them, it makes it so easy to travel the few minutes it takes to go visit Zachary. We visit him two or three times a day. We go for a few hours in the morning (which is when we get to hold him), sometimes an hour or two in the afternoon and then we go for a couple hours after dinner in the evening. We try to give him lots of time to rest too. Stephen is starting back to work on Monday, so I'll go visit him in the afternoons while Stephen works. I'm off for at least a few more weeks while I continue to recover from the c-section and the difficulties I had being pregnant.

We also owe our friends Suzy and Sarah a HUGE thanks for taking in and watching our sweet boys (the cats, Luke and Magellan) while we have been at the hospital and while we are staying at Marie and David's house. They have taken in our sweet boys and given them the attention they require. We stopped by for a visit today and they were happy to see us and doing just fine. Another thanks goes to Marsha for bringing in our mail and giving me a heads up that a big fat jury summons was waiting for me. Oh fun.

Stephen and I are both doing well. My big news this weekend is that I have been able to go back to wearing my "real pants" as in no more maternity pants!! Whoo hoo! I can't tell you how excited I am about that. I can't remember if I ever mentioned this, but I actually lost weight while being pregnant. I lost 15 pounds during the first trimester with the horrendous morning sickness and other issues I had and then I gained 7 pounds during the second trimester before the hospital and 6 pounds during the 5 weeks I was pregnant in the hospital. If my math is correct, overall I lost two pounds. Since having him I've lost even more. That's another good thing about giving him breastmilk, I seem to be losing weight. YEAY!

Well, that's about all that's going on in our world. We'll try to upload more pictures or videos soon. In the meantime, love to all!