Friday was a fun day with Daddy

The entire family had fun today! We took Emers and Cal to Chuck-E-Cheese's today. They had so much fun! I couldn't tell which of my 3 kids had the most fun :) Em and Cal especially loved riding the horsey, and it was adorable how they took turns cheering the other on! I am so proud of Emerald and what a wonderful big sister she is, always watching out for her little brother. I am hoping she'll continue this with Zach and will teach Calvin how to do the same. Skip had a lot of fun shooting baskets and driving the race car games, and in helping the kids. We really wanted to have some positive time with these 2 b/c all we feel lately is that we've been shuffling them around (as per Emerald's comments tonight before bed, "where am I going to tomorrow, who's watching me?"), getting on them all the time to clean up, hurry up, and pushing them constantly on schedules and nap withdrawals. We were very happy to spend the positive, fun time focused on them today!! The kids even ended their day with the loudest giggles we've heard in a long time. After bath tonight the sounds of laughter, giggles, Old McDonald, and many other happy songs could be heard floating thru our house. Daddy knows just how to make those kids smile every time!

After the fun time at CEC my sweet friend from high school, Anita, allowed the kids to come and have a play date at her house. The kids loved plaing with her son, Reese, and all of his toys. We loved that we got some alone time with Zach! Thanks Anita and Reese!!

We got to the NICU just in time today to "help" with a feeding. A lactation consultant came in to speak with me about various aspects of breastfeeding. This was somewhat helpful, although she was a little hard to understand. Zach's doesn't seem to be doing too bad, for his size/age. We'll keep working on it. Zach gained another 2 ounces!!! He is now working his way back to his birth weight (which was 3-14 as a reminder) and is now at 3 lb 10 3/4 oz. That 3/4 oz is important to us right now :) While we were there he went thru 4 diapers in about 20 minutes. Little stinker is a great way to describe those 20 minutes!! :) We didn't mind one bit, though. Daddy got some wonderful alert/awake time with Zach. He was so alert, turning back and forth toward our voices. Even the nurse commented on this. Zach was awake for over an hour today, and it was awesome to see him so responsive to us.

The nurse practioner (man there are so many different people involved in this process) came in today while we were there and checked him out. Yet another person telling us that he is doing well, which we agree with. She started talking about when we move him to the crib (more like an open air bassinet really). He is close, has to work on another degree with air temp. This is exciting for us b/c that is just another positive step in the right direction, and something we know has to happen before we can leave. The nurse also started giving us a few items to "check off" before discharge (which is not happening soon, just that we can work on getting them done now) like taking a CPR class (something we had to do for the adoption process, too), watching a car-seat video, and work on some paperwork. We are all for this, b/c when discharge comes we want to be ready to jump in the car and bring him home (at least I think I'll be ready by then, I hope).

Zach remains on his nasal canulla for now, but today was down to 0.1 L and at 21%, which is actually the same % we breathe. It's not very much oxygen, but he needs this little bit for now, and we are ok with that. I would love to see him breathing completely on his own, which will happen, but for now this little bit is what he needs.

Daddy hasn't quite accomplished all he wanted to do this week. He was determined to "whip this house in shape". I know he is working his butt off, but there is just so much to do in simply keeping up with Em and Cal, let alone running around to the hospital and trying to catch up from Christmas. My prayers for the day include a huge thankgiving prayer for my husband, who has been wonderful thru this all, and who is working hard at keeping me happy and healthy, keeping his kids laughing and loved, and keeping Zach in the front of all our minds. He is wonderful! We also pray that Em & Cal continue to take this all in stride. Pray that Zach keeps gaining weight and making postive strides.