Countdown....

It has been a bit of time since I last wrote. Although I know many people are anxious for updates because you have fallen in love with Landon like his mommy and daddy have, it is a good thing that I haven't posted. I haven't had much time between getting the house ready for him TO COME HOME and winding down work so I can go back on leave to spend time with Landon AT HOME.

Landon has officially been designated a feeder/grower in the NICU. Babies who are feeder/growers are ready to go home as long as they are showing growth and tolerating their food. We are now just waiting for Landon to finish the transition from bring fed continuously through the tube in his nose to his stomach to being fed every 3 hours through a combination of bottle feeding and nose tube feeding. Basically we are on pins and needles praying he doesn't puke up his feeding. His poor little tummy needs to learn to accomodate a large amount of food at once rather than the tiny amounts he got continuously.

On the upside, this transition is allowing him to start bottle feeding better because he now gets hungry between feedings, something that didn't happen before when there was always food in his tummy. He gets so hungry that he forgets he doesn't like the bottle and hungrily sucks it down. He still has issues with coordination and can't take his full feed in the bottle, but we hope to get him to be able to do so in the next few months.

It is hard to imagine that we are so close to going home. As long as nothing crazy happens (and with Landon I wouldn't be shocked), we should be going home in the next two weeks possibly even sooner if he decides to cooperate (for the first time in his life :). His room is done and his little baby clothes are washed and ready to be worn. All frantically done this weekend when we realized how close we are to home.

Now that we have mastered life in the NICU, we have to face the unknown once again when we are home. Everyone has told us that babies do so much better at home and we can't wait to see what Landon thinks of his room and doggie! We are learning how to change his feeding tube and give him his meds. We will also have oxygen and possibly a monitor to let us know his oxygen levels. Not exactly things most people have to deal with in the first nights home with a new baby, but we are so grateful to be going home, we can't complain!

Sometimes it feels like the last 8 months of our lives have been on hiatus. Once baby is home, we will finally take the pause button off our life and start living again. We are nervous to learn how to be parents without the assistance of doctors, nurses, and monitors. We have been very well prepared and I am confident we can do this, though that doesn't take away the anxiety! I hope my next post is the one we have all been waiting for....