Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas Day 2015

We had a lovely Christmas Day.  Elliot, Adeline & Charlotte woke us around 7:15, which was far better than what I had expected.  We opened presents, too many as always, and had a nice big breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast.  We went outside to play in the incredible 60-65 degree weather.  The twins had gotten "motorcycles" and Elliot got a hockey set.  We enjoyed a good 30 minutes or more outside in the surprisingly warm sunshine, atypical of Christmas weather around here!  We headed inside, and Daddy made popovers (a Jak family tradition) which we ate for lunch.  Addie & Charlie headed off for naptime, Elliot exploring her new toys (I believe the Legos won out this time), and Mom and Dad tried to make sense of all the new stuff in the house.

We woke the twins from their nap a little before 4 and Dave and I drove them to his Uncle Tom's house.  We dropped the kids there with Grammy and Grandpa, and then David and I headed off to the hospital.  We handed off a box of chocolates to our nurse JoAnne who always signs up for Lincoln.  We cuddled, fed, and snuggled our baby.  Just before his feed, JoAnne agreed to remove his NG tube as Link has now gone over 48 hours of nippling all feeds.  That was a nice Christmas gift - one less thing for Lincoln to be hooked up to!  We can see still a bit more of his sweet face!  After his feed, Dave and I went up to the Ronald McDonald room for dinner.  There was (cold) garlic pasta with broccoli, linguine and mussels (we don't eat seafood, so we avoided this one!), baked ziti, and sausage and peppers.  All cold.  And the microwave there is broken.  The kind volunteers offered to take our plates to another unit in the hospital and heat up our meals, but it just wasn't that big a deal, so we ate the cold food.  We had dessert as well, then headed back down for more cuddling (and pumping).

I am a huge breastfeeding advocate and I really nursed my three girls for a long time.  Lincoln's situation is of course totally different from the girls and I'm just so desperate to have him home at this point, I haven't even tried breastfeeding in at least a week!  My plan is to start up at home with one or two feeds a day.  I will continue pumping, I truly believe that my breastmilk is keeping this boy healthy and growing.  He has to go 48 hours of fully nippled feeds to come home (he's hit that mark now!), and I didn't want to mess with his stats by trying breastfeeding as well.  Looking forward to having him home so we can back on the wagon.

Speaking of coming home, we're definitely in the single digits.  I'm actually guessing five days.  His carseat is in his room, JoAnne is going to do the carseat test today!  (An hour and a half of sitting in the carseat to be sure his sats don't tank.)  We're waiting on clearance from cardio, his surgeon (for pooping issues), and his oxygen delivery.  The end is SO near!!!

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