Moving right along...

Well, after almost 4 weeks in the hospital, we are still steadily progressing. Titus has been getting better and better at nursing on his own, and the Dr. put a new order in that if he nurses for more than 15 minutes, we don't feed him through his gavage tube. So far today, he's been able go without the gavage twice, which is great progress. He's been gaining weight steadily still, and is 5 1/2 pounds, possibly even slightly more.

The biggest change right now is that I will be boarding at the hospital starting on Monday. I'll be able to come and leave as I please, but will be spending the night here so I can nurse him through the night, too. It will be nice to have a room here again, too, so I can take naps during the day as I please. I plan to make it home for dinner and our bed time routine with the kiddos. Back to Titus, as long as he continues gaining weight and can nurse long enough, and consistently, we're looking at possibly coming home sometime around next weekend. I'm hoping he'll be my valentine! Can you see the chub on his legs?

The kids have been holding up well. Ezra has enjoyed going to kindergarten with Stella, and Stella had definitely been happy to have him there with her. Unfortunately, he's caught a cold, which makes things a little sticky for us. I'm warding off his germs, Nick and I are both trying to teach him to cough and sneeze into his elbow (which he seems determined to refuse!), and we're hoping Stella and Nick don't catch it, too. This now means Nick is stuck at the house while I'm gone, but hopefully he'll be able to come up to the hospital tonight or tomorrow after the kiddos are in bed.

Nick is doing alright, and has managed to get some of his work done in the mean time. He's been doing a great job with the kids, and they are happy and excited when I come home. He's also been fabulous handling three meals a day! He was beginning to feel a little under the weather-- hopefully it's nothing much. He returns to work for the day tomorrow and on Friday as well. We've got childcare lined up, and all should be fine.

Other than that, we've had a quiet week. We took the kids out for pizza earlier this week, and they had a great time afterwards playing on the arcade machines. I couldn't resist a photo:

We also had a lovely dinner at a friends' house last night. It was great to just sit back and enjoy a meal and good conversation. Hopefully soon we'll be able to do much more of that as life starts to get back to a new kind of normal after Titus is home.

Current prayer requests:

*That nursing would continue to go well and Titus would be able to have more and more stamina and stay awake longer each feeding.

*That I would adjust to being at the hospital, and not mind walking the hall to get to Titus' middle of the night feedings. He'll be able to room in with me after a few days, once the docs are satisfied that he's maintaining his vitals and weight gain. I'm looking forward to this day most, second only to the day of his homecoming. It's very odd to not be in complete "control" of Titus' care, and I'm eager to have that change!

*That the kids would do okay this week while Mommy's back at the hospital full time.