My little 2-ring circus.

I've decided not to send out birth announcements-- mainly because I'm not satisfied with the results of my several attempts to get some baby pictures. Sorry to all of you running to your mailbox every afternoon hoping to see some adorable pictures of my child. I'll show you what I've been able to get-- they're still cute, but not the drop-dead-gorgeous baby photos I had envisioned.




Adjusting to life with a second child hasn't been the circus I had thought it would be. Don't get me wrong- I definitely feel like I'm running a zoo sometimes, but I chalk that up to the crazy 2-year-old living with me. From the moment Micah's little eyelids open in the morning she is ready to go bye-bye. And, while she was an only-child, we usually did have some place to go or something to do. Now that her little brother has entered the scene she can't seem to understand why we're not conquering all the end-of-summer-sales at the Castleton Mall.... oh, how I wish we could!!! Playing with "bubblef" and going to the park are only fun the first 15 minutes, or however long it takes Aaron to realize he is hungry.... again.

The last 4 weeks and been a whirlwind- a little stressful, but a lot of wonderful. My baby boy has gained a little over 2 pounds already!! He weighed 9lbs 11oz a couple of days ago and is starting to outgrow some of his newborn clothes. He's looking like a little man- complete with a beautiful pair of blue eyes to compete with his sister's.


Speaking of that little girl- here's what Aaron thinks of her....

Another big day!

As planned, the nasal cannula was discontinued early this morning. Feedings went really well during the night-- so well that I only got about 3 hrs of sleep. The IV nutrition was discontinued late this morning because of his great breastfeeding. I was able to give Aaron his first bath, unfortunately I was alone at the time so I wasn't able to get any pictures. After his bath he was upgraded to a normal crib-- clearing the warmer out of the room. YAY!!



Micah was able to visit again today- this is her 4th time seeing her new brother. She is thrilled with the baby. I asked her what the baby's name was and she quickly replied, "ELMO!". Too bad the birth certificate is already filed.



Aaron is finally our normal baby. I can't begin to imagine how families cope with NICU stays lasting weeks and months. Our 7-day tour was quite enough. We anticipate going home Saturday afternoon-evening sometime.



Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers for our family and our precious baby boy. I truly believe that without our faith this small bump in the road would not have passed so smoothly.

And he's off!...

Big day for Aaron- he's off the vent and breathing on his own!!! And doing great, too! In fact, he's almost off everything! Shortly after he was extubated, the doctor discontinued one of his umbilical lines, leaving the other in place for him to continue to received the antibiotics. Then, about 30 minutes after that was out I got to feed him! He did wonderfully breastfeeding, picking up right where he left off on Saturday. I couldn't be more proud of my little man. As you can see in the picture, he still has on a little bit of oxygen. If you ask me, it's such a small amount I don't think he really even needs it-- his nurse agrees with me. That should be gone by the morning.

The plan now is this--

**Antibiotics for another 3 days.
**Eat
**Sleep
**Pee and poop.
**Get circumcised.
**Pass hearing screen.
**Watch fireworks from NICU window.
**Go home and live happily ever after.