Steady as he goes

We are so sorry it has taken so long since our last post. We have been a little busy and sleep deprived. However, we will take this any day over going to the hospital for hours every day. Scott continues to grow and prosper. He is almost 10 pounds and has not had the feeding tube for almost 2 weeks. At the suggestion of home nurse we started feeding Scott on his side and it has made all the difference. He is much more relaxed and can better pace himself. Rarely now does he not drink the entire bottle and it seems to be much more enjoyable for him (and us). His big brother is very loving and affectionate towards Scott. We'll see if that continues when Scott is old enough to steal his toys.

Mindy's mom was here for a week around Thanksgiving and was a tremendous help. We even were able to go to the movies one afternoon. We will be here for Christmas as well, but are contemplating a drive to Long Beach for New Years. Thanks again to all for your support during the past few months. We are grateful to have such great friends and family. Phil, Mindy, Will and Scott

Homecoming!!

After 64 days in the hospital Scott has finally come home. The course of IV antibiotics is finished. An upper GI test was normal. Oh, and his heart is just fine. Now we just need to get him off the feeding tube, but that's a nice problem to have. We now trade trips to the hospital for sleepless nights, but are happy about it.

We want to thank everyone for all their love and support during the past few months. We couldn't have made it through without you.

Love,

Phil, Mindy, Will and Scott

Almost home...

Hi all. Sorry about the delay between postings. Scott's schedule has become fairly routine and normal - eat, sleep, poop repeat... His IV antibiotics finish today and after a few tests we hope to bring him home on Friday. He is still not getting enough food through the nipple or bottle so he will still have a feeding tube. We hope he won't need it for too long. We long for the normal routine of feeding, sleeping and changing without the monitoring lines and IV. Life in the hospital has gotten pretty old, especially for Mindy, who has spent many hours a day there making sure Scott gets what he needs. She has been amazing.

Hopefully our next post will be about life at home. Thanks again for all your support.

Phil, Mindy, Will and Scott

Snuggle Bug

This photo was taken by Phil's brother about a week ago - Scott loves having his right hand up by his ear. He must have been that way in utero!

Our Little Celebrity

Back when Scott was in the ICU there was a TV crew doing a segment on Pediatric Cardiology. They chose Scott and Mindy to be part of the segment. Click the link below to see our TV stars(Scott and Mindy appear after about 4 minutes).

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1795749292/bclid1799152753/bctid1886150751

Our 3 Kilo Boy!

Hi everyone,

As you can see we've slowed down on our blog entries. At this point, Scott is very stable and basically in maintenance mode. His 6 week course of antibiotics will finish on November 11th, which is Will's birthday and 1 week after his original due date!

Right now we are just working on getting him to take his food orally (either by breast or by the bottle). We try to do 3 feedings each day (2 breast and 1 bottle) but he still needs to be supplemented with breast milk down his nasal feeding tube. We are hopeful that he will not need the feeding tube by the time he can be off the antibiotics. But he is gaining weight each day and today was just over 3 kilograms (6 pounds, 6 ounces). He's becoming quite the big boy compared to other preemies in the nursery!

Love,
Mindy (& Phil & Will)

Photos