HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Wow, we have made it to the Holidays?! Really? When Caleb was born almost 4 months ago...who would have ever imagined we would have been through so much, in such a short time! We are SO thankful this year for him and how much improvement he has already made. From getting out of the hospital after one month to getting his feeding tube out already, etc...we are certainly counting our blessings this year!

At his cardiology appt. last week he weighed 10 lbs. 15 oz! We are getting there...slowly but surely. :) He has his 4 month check up at the pediatrician on Dec. 8th, so that will certainly be a true test of his weight, as they are the ones who have been keeping a much closer eye on it then the cardiologist. At the cardiologist, his oxygen numbers were down into the 80s now, so he cut his medicine amounts in half. He feels that by next month, we will probably be off of them for good! Oh what a day!! He will still need to take aspirin to keep his shunt from forming a clot and the Zantac for his reflux, but those are certainly manageable and do not have to be given on such a strict schedule. :)

Caleb is eating/drinking more each and every day. To go from having to feed him every three hours and him hardly being interested in it, to now, where he does not like to even stop and burp! We are up to about 3 1/2 ounces, but he certainly seems like he would take more sometimes as he is unhappy when the bottle is done. We are slowly increasing his amount so that we do not aggravate his reflux! We do not want that to creep back into our days. He is eating every three hours during the day and still sleeping in between each bottle. With his heart condition that still needs to be repaired, he just does not have the stamina to stay awake longer then an hour and a half to two hours. He is sleeping good at night - approx. 6-7 hours, so again, very thankful!! :) Now if we could just get mommy to sleep all the way through that time we would be doing good!

There is truly NO way to sum up all that we have learned from Caleb already or what we will continue to learn from him each and every day in the future, but we are truly thankful for him no matter how hard it has been! We will never know why God chose us to be his parents after we thought we could not have any more kids of our own, we were even getting ready to start another adoption process! We are just so glad we did not give in to the pressure of the doctors that all said his outlook was "grim" and that if he did make it into this world his quality of life would be poor. Does that picture resemble a baby with poor quality of life?!

THANK YOU so much for each and every one of your prayers, meals, cards, gifts and most of all love and support over the last 4 months. We appreciate each and every one SO much. I hope to actually get to thank you notes one of these days.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Happy Quarter Birthday, Caleb!!

Sorry the last couple weeks have slipped right by me again. Caleb is now 3 months old! A quarter way through his first year. The doctors told us so many times during my pregnancy that his outlook was "SO grim, IF he even will make it to term". Guess we have shown them!! :)

The week before last at his weight check he gained 5 ounces! Of course, this past week...one lonely little ounce. Oh well. He continues to eat pretty well, although he has certainly slowed down from what he was eating. Guess this growing spurt has already passed. Here's hoping the good bottle drinking (even though it is just 3 ounces) continues though...just maybe not as often?! We shall see...just hope we don't backslide, that's for sure.

He seems to have a little break from Drs. appts. Since he gained 5 ounces week before last then the pediatrician did not need to see him on a regular basis anymore, even though we had to go back this week for shots. So I guess we have a couple down weeks until his next cardiologist appt. His services with the County Early Intervention program start this week but they are only sending a DS (developmental specialist) at this point. Now sure what all she will do, but hopefully it will give us some insight into his development and what we can be working on. He is "behind" on a couple things like holding his head, but I do not count the first month of life as much since he did nothing but lay in a hospital bed and sleep. So, hopefully we can get him caught up soon enough. We are working on the neck support and tummy time, but he does not like the tummy time too much as he just ends up putting his face right into the blanket.

On the flip side, he is starting to recognize us and we can usually get him to smile when he is in a good mood (fed and rested). What a joy it is to have him smile back at you and sometimes "talk" back to you as well. It far outweighs any trials of the first couple months. Unfortunately, this also means that he is specifically not recognizing faces he is not familiar with, so we apologize if he screams when not in the best mood.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers on Caleb's behalf. We will show these Drs. yet! I sure wish I could take him back to each of the specialists that gave us bad news on top of bad news during my pregnancy. Wonder what they would think or say?! :)