My Boys

Check out the cheeks on this kid! They are HUGE! Ryan has been coming along these last couple of days. The Dr. put a minimum on the amount of food that he has to eat every three hours- 68 mililiters- which granted is only like two ounces, but for a kid that has only previously been able to swallow 22 mililiters- this looked almost insurmountable to Shaun and I. However, if he didn't eat the 68 from his bottle, the nurses were going to put a tube down his nose that went to his stomach and feed him that way. I kept telling Ryan that he's had too many tubes stuck in him lately and we were going to keep this one OUT! It took a little bit of prompting at first- but he's done really well. Last night he was kind of pokey, but he got it down. We're so proud! The Dr. still won't give us a time that he can come home, but he's coming along. The biggest obstacle right now is still his oxygen levels. We were pleasantly suprised yesterday to see that Ryan has been moved from the most critical section of the NICU to the middle level. I like things in this room a little better. The setting is a little bit more relaxed than in the level 3 room- there's always alarms going off and Drs and nurses running all over the place.

It's been nice that the NICU allows a few people into the room with us-- my mom and Shaun take turns taking me down to the hospital for "cares" ("cares" means that's when the nurse will change him, weigh him and feed him- if we go at certain times of the day the nurse will let us do these things).

Anyway- I realize that it has been a while since I have posted anything about big brother. Ty is still pretty confused about the whole situation. When I got home from a feeding with Ryan yesterday, Ty came running into the living room and asked me "Did you bring baby Ryan home with you?" We've told him that Ryan is still in the hospital because he's kind of sick. But he's been kept kind of busy since we've been staying at Grandma's house. His favorite thing to do in the evenings is to "help" Grandpa water the raspberry bushes and to go for motorcycle rides with him. We also signed him up for swimming lessons twice a week- and Grandma was the lucky one to get to take him. He's really liked them- I think because he might be half fish- and looks forward to going each time. I'm so grateful that both Grandma and Grandpa are willing to distract Ty while Shaun and I have been at the hospital and such. I think he's had fun while we've been here and we may not be able to get him to go home when the time comes!