What a beautiful face!

No nasal cannula!! Chunking up, too!

So I realized the other day that we were never able to take that "standard" family pose after Zachary's birth. It's a little late, but here are the 3 of us. We'll have to wait a little while longer to get the 5 of us all together. I can't wait!!

Maybe one of my new favorites??

Steph--the following are just for you!!





My sweet little boy's tiny feet.

Can you start to see those chubby cheeks and double-chin?

No nasal cannula!!

This is a great pic to imagine when reading the description below. This is still with his nasal cannula and ng tube in. All gone now!!

This picture is so sweet b/c he's starting to get enough meat on his bones to make wrinkles on his arms.

Daddy's first opportunity to give Zach his bottle. He didn't do too bad with it.

I went in last night and finally, a month his birth, I got to see my son's full face. He got his ng tube out!!! What a glorious day!! I walked in and the awesome nurse, Nicole, acted so excited. She was so thrilled to tell me that his tube was out! She also told me a funny story. Dr. Lancaster had come in to see Zachary and ordered that they could try to pull it out and do all oral feeds. He was thinking later evening, or even the next day. Nicole walked over to Zach's bedside 20 minutes later and there he was, holding his ng tube in his hand, smiling up at her with a huge smile she said. She told me she'd ran for the camera to take a pic for me, but they were all out of film in their Polaroid. Wish I'd have brought in a disposable camera for them! Of course, again, I didn't bring my camera last night, but will do so tonight. She told me most babies fuss when they pull their tubes out, or at least sneeze a bunch, but Zach was just as content as could be. What a sweet baby we have! I guess he heard the doctor's order and decided to help the nurse out. Besides, I'm sure he thought that if the doc was ok with the tube out, then by golly he was done with the tube up his nose.

It was such an incredibly sweet moment for me to walk over to his crib and see his face. That sounds so silly, to look at your son's face when he's been here for a month. However, it is so different looking at him with nothing at all attached to that beautiful, sweet, innocent precious baby face. You see, we've been thru a serious of things in our way while looking at our son. First, there was the CPAP, then he was intubated, next he had the nasal cannula, and most of that time he additionally had the ng tube, too. It has progressively gotten much easier to hold him as well. As you place your ginormous hand on his teeny, tiny head, you have to maneuver all those wires and cords around his head w/o hurting him. It was an awesome moment picking him up and holding his head in my hand w/o one single thing in the way of his head. Yes, believe it or not, I cried. :) I love all of these positive, wonderful steps of progress he is accomplishing.

As of last night our little Z man weighed 5 lb 4 oz!! He's a growing boy! Zach was having his hearing screening done when I left the hospital last night. I guess we'll get the results of that today when we go in. He had another (standard) re-check of a head ultrasound to make sure he didn't have any cranial bleeds. Haven't yet received that result, either. They also tell us that he is scheduled in the next couple of weeks to get his eyes checked. Again, all standard stuff.

It has been interesting as the itemized insurance bills start rolling in from this entire process. All I can say is thank God for good insurance. We are so blessed that in the midst of all this chaos, the one burden we truly are not all that worried about is paying for this entire ordeal. We are so blessed to have insurance through Garmin and to know that they have been great about taking care of paying our bills. You would have your jaw drop at seeing some of the charges from this all. We are joking about adding it all up in the end and trying to take a guess at how much this will all cost. Unbelievable!! However, having spent as much time in the NICU, I can truly believe that it expensive, and that a lot of the charges truly are worth every penny if it can keep my baby boy healthy. There are so many people involved in this process, nurses, nurse practitioners, neonatologists, lab techs, sonographers (??), all the millions of supplies we go thru on a daily basis, the secretaries we talk to each day we call up there, radiologists, respiratory therapists, social workers, dietitians, hospital administrations, hospital records, obstetrician, perinatologist, and that is honestly all we have physically met with--I'm sure there are thousands more we aren't even aware of behind the scenes. It is a miraculous web intertwined that does work amazingly well together.

Sorry for the lack of pictures for forever. We've been extremely busy, go figure, and finally found some time to sit and add pics. I'm a little behind. Look for more pics to come soon. Including Calvin's birthday and some special moments.

We've seen 6 discharges since we moved to PCN on Friday. 2 of them were sets of twins. Another was a foster care situation. It was kind of bitter sweet for me, b/c a lot of the nurses felt so bad for that baby. Although it truly wasn't exactly the same, that situation took me back to 2 and 4 years ago. I am positive that both Emerald and Calvin were laying in a hospital nursery, nurses caring for them both, and wondering just where those sweet babies would end up. I heard our nurse the other day going on about how this baby's life would end up. I couldn't help but speak up and remind them that there was potential for good things. After all, my babies (I hope) have ended up in a good place with a good family. It was so very interesting to be on the other end, wondering, and was so nice to allow me a moment to reflect on the birth experience of both Emerald and Calvin. Seeing all these discharges happening inspires me--we so need to prepare this house for Zach's homecoming. We will be having a "Gotcha Day" for Zachary, too, and it will be happening sometime soon. No, we don't have a date!! I just know that w/o his ng tube in, we are that much closer.

I will try to get pics today and update them soon. I'll also post when we hear test results from the above mentioned tests. We remain optimistic (disregard my previous negative post, really, I was just frustrated) that all will be ok and Zachary can come home to the chaos of the Pankewich household and survive this noise. At least he is preparing for the noise in the PCN b/c they have a radio on 24/7, lights on all day long, and with 8 babies in his room, and next door to newborn nursery, there are big baby cries constantly. It is just preparing him, right, for his new world at home with Laney, Emerald, and Calvin! Good luck handsome baby boy.