Update

Jeremy and I went in to see Tucker last night when Jeremy got here from Pullman. He was off of Oxygen most of the day, I got to nurse him 1 1/2 times (with the lactation lady there, so hopefully her pointers will benefit both of us). We've been topping him off with a bottle as he's now on "full feeds" every 4 hours. He still has a feeding tube in, and sometimes he just gets too tired to finish eating, so they feed him through the tube. He has to be able to eat all day and all night by himself without getting too sleepy before we can take him home. Jeremy got to give him a bottle though and then hold him for about an hour while Tucker slept in his arms, his breathing (and heart beat, as I can't help but look at the monitor every 10 seconds) were nice and even the whole time. Yeah! He no longer has to have the billy light on, so that's one more step closer to coming home.

The developmental therapist came in yesterday to evaluate him. She's actually going to re-evaluate on Monday because she didn't think it was fair to expect certain things after he had run a marathon the night before...who would be up for muscle strength testing? His palate is a little high, from being on the ventilator, which might make nursing a little harder, but shouldn't have any other effects on him. He also doesn't root really well, which again, will just make nursing a little harder...worse case scenario, we don't nurse...but we're still working on it and hoping. She might give us a "work-out" plan for him to do at home. He's also on an oral medicine for the next two weeks (we can give it to him at home, so it won't effect his stay-time) to help prevent his heart from freaking out again...even though its unlikely anyway. We have a follow-up visit with the cardiologist on the 20th.

Side note: so right now we are still planning on driving Grandma back to Oregon and blessing Tucker on the 15th, but we'll have to come back on Thursday in order to get to his appointment. All of our plans are very soft at this point, but that's where we're at. It all depends on when he gets to come home and how much more school and work Jeremy will miss.

Maeli had a really bad night last night, so Jeremy is sleeping in a little with her. Since Tucker's care is every 4 hours now there really isn't much for us to do until 12 anyway. So then we'll get the update. Not that I want any more of my babies to go through NICU boot camp, but I'm thinking feeding every 4 hours and knowing how to put himself to sleep in his own bed are decent bonuses to walk home with after all this...