Oh Happy Days!!!

Finally, we’ve had a series of wonderful days with our little lady. For the past couple of weeks, Emersyn has continued to make great strides much to the pleasure of her parents, doctors and nurses. She has graduated down to the lowest form of air support (low-flow nasal cannula) and is basically on room air with just a whiff of oxygen and is tolerating it beautifully. Additionally, they started her on feeds about two weeks ago through a tube that runs through her nose into her tummy. She has taken to mommy’s milk very well and they’ve been able to increase her feeds up to a full feed (9 ml) every 4 hours. This was a big milestone as her tummy continues to heal. Our hope is that she would be able to transition from a continuous the feeding method to what the nurses call bolus feeds where they increase the volume but decrease the amount of time they administer it. This will get her closer to mimicking a nursing schedule in preparation of when she is able to nurse.

The other big news is she is now over 3 pounds!! She managed to gain a whole pound in her first 5 weeks of life which is significant as the first 3 weeks she wasn’t getting any food. As of today she is just over 3 lbs. 1 oz. and is starting to fill out beautifully. It brings us great joy each day to see how she continues to change, grow and get more and more beautiful. Lynsey jokes that she is losing her grandpa booty now that she is putting on some weight. Weight gain is a big deal around here as her progress is gauged in large part by how she is growing. We’ve been told by her surgeon that once she gets closer to 7lbs they will start looking at putting her “plumbing” back together so we obviously want her to continue to gain weight in hopes that she will be big enough before her term date (1 Nov) for them to perform the surgery and allow her enough time to heal before discharge without having to delay her departure from the NICU.

Lastly, due to Emersyn’s progress and stability, the doctors have informed us that we no longer need to feel compelled to be so close to the hospital all the time. So with a little trepidation, we checked out of the Ronald McDonald house and headed north to stay with Nana and Papa Pringle so we can spend more time with Zack. We love spending time with our little guy and get such a kick out of watching him change and making us laugh. He has learned to say the word “more” and is constantly using it to point at the pantry or the fridge to get more food. This kid is hungry ALL THE TIME!! We are thankful that he is such a good eater and loves going out in the backyard to eat Nana and Papa’s cherry tomatoes off the vine. Too bad there aren’t many tomatoes for our salads as they mysteriously disappear each time Zack is playing in the yard . It does our hearts good to be able to spend time with Zack and play with him to offset some of the stress of the NICU life with Emersyn. Balance is the word of the day for us and admittedly, we still continue to try and find what that looks like for us.

Joe goes back to work this week for the first time in almost 7 weeks and this will definitely be an adjustment that we could use some prayer over. It has been so wonderful that the Air Force has given him the time to be with us up to this point and we are so thankful for their understanding and flexibility during this journey for our family. It has freed him up to be here 100% of the time; emotionally and physically which was incredible. It will not be easy for him to be back down in Colorado Springs, but we are confident that this next phase will work out just fine, just a few more miles on the car that’s all .