GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

The bad news is that the infection we have been dreading for weeks finally hit. Two of them in fact. The good news is that Thaddeus isn't the one infected. My sister, who stayed with us for a while to watch the kids, went home with a sinus infection at the same time I found out that I have an ear infection in each ear. The only consolation we have as these infections refuse to go away, is that it is better us than Thaddeus.

Speaking of Thaddeus, he is doing very well. He has been doing well enough with the bottle that the feeding tube was removed today. This means he is down to only the oxygen tube. He will continue to get three different meds for the next several months - until his next surgery this summer, but he will get them orally. He now gets to wear real baby clothes and looks almost normal! He needs to continue to be stable, keep eating, and make some progress getting rid of the oxygen, and then he should be ready to go home. We have some training/testing to do on our end before we are ready to take him home. We are not sure how long all of this will take, but as of right now things seem to be progressing somewhat rapidly. We need to be able to check his blood oxygen levels daily. We also will check his weight daily. We will keep track of every ounce he eats and when he eats it. We will be (re)trained in infant CPR. We will be trained in how to nicely tell people that he is a high risk child so he will have to be more "hands off" than our other children. We will have them test him out in his car seat for an hour or so under supervision to make sure he can make the ride home safely. We will also undergo some other training in the coming months, including what to look out for to see if he will suffer any mental challenges due to his heart condition and resulting surgeries. So, it is a good thing we like to learn, because we will have a lot to learn. However, that said, we praise and thank the Lord for making this little guy so strong! Check out the pictures to see what a couple of weeks will do for a guy.