Ben's almost ready to come home!

I got a call this morning from the head of the NICU. She told me that Ben has made amazing progress the last couple of days and that they're writing new orders for him (their official way of saying they're changing the plan for him). They were originally considering a 10 day dose of antibiotics, but his infection is cleared up and they're ending his antibiotics tonight! They're even going to take out his IV (a big step forward in my mind). I went and fed him a bottle last night. He's doing so well with bottle feeds that they upped him to a bottle feed every six hours. Now he just needs to gain weight for 48 hours from bottle feeds and get all the way off the oxygen. She said if he keeps progressing this way she hopes he can come home "by the end of the weekend."

Thanks for your prayers and messages of support. It's especially nice to hear from other moms who've had babies in the NICU. I'm getting ready to head down to give him another bottle. I'll post again when we know more.

Lucy is doing well here at home, but giving us the usual newborn tricks at night....She was fussy and wouldn't take a bottle, a plug (my term for binky), or go to sleep for about 2 hours last night--in the MIDDLE of the night, of course! What I finally tried that worked was offering a bottle with the same nipple as the hospital nipples. I guess she just didn't care for the brand of bottles I have here at home--for that feeding anyway! I know she'll come around, but it did make me glad we only had one baby last night. I think the craziness will really start next week!