April 1 - No Joking

The past few days have been very good as well as difficult for Nicole and I. While Ethan is doing great and he accepts his bottle feeds like a champ, he is looking more and more like a full term baby, making it very difficult to leave the hospital without him. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and the anticipation is getting to us. Ethan could conceivably come home in a week… or in a month. We are not on official "Brady Watch", but we are keeping tabs anyway. To come home with Nicole and I, Ethan must prove to the doctors that he is just as healthy as any other full term baby, meaning he can accept his bottle feeds and most importantly, he must go without a drop in his oxygen and heart rate for 5 days straight. While I hope and pray that he stops having his drops right now, it will perhaps be some time before we get close to bringing him home. Nicole and I have learned not to put a timetable to things and to just let life run it's course and soon enough, Ethan will be home.

In other news, I (Jon) have finally learned how to properly hold Ethan without making him turn reddish / purple, making all the alarms go off and he even looks comfortable. For the longest time I would hold him and soon enough the nurses would come running and very nicely tell me that I'm not holding him correctly (as if I hadn't noticed all the bells and alarms!?!). To make myself feel better, I'd like to think that holding a preemie is more difficult than a full term baby.

Ethan's weight is up to 4 pounds, 12 ounces and he's really looking good.