7 weeks home! 3 months corrected!

Wow!  It is hard to believe Joshua has been home for just over 7 weeks!  The adjustment into the new normal has been pretty difficult.  Yes, there are more precautions we need to take with Joshua - keeping his weak immune system away from as many people and germs as possible.  And there is extra equipment that we need to carry around behind us or make sure the older kids don't trip over.  There is the fact that this is child #4 and bringing a forth child into any home will definitely make things more stressful in a household.  But overall the biggest part of the adjustment has been recovering physically, emotionally, and spiritually from the past 7 months.  So much was just dumped on our family and we went into survival mode.  We did what we had to do, we tended to the essential needs of our family and everything else went on a back burner.  Joe and I tended to Joshua's needs first, the older kids second, our personal needs next and our relational needs last.  It takes a while to recover from the stress of not knowing whether or not your child will survive...and if he survives what will be his needs.  And, for as much time as Joe and I spent with Joshua in the hospital, connecting with him is still so different than how we connected to our other babies because we had to guard our hearts for so long in case he didn't make it.

We still don't have all the answers on Joshua's health, but Joshua is doing quite well for all he has been through!  He is three months old corrected (from his due date)  He is hitting milestones like smiling, cooing, tracking objects, reacting to sounds, his movements are smooth, and his muscle tone is balanced.  We will have a while longer on the oxygen, but that is okay.  We had 6 days of oxygen only at night!  It was great to be able to walk around without kicking tubing with our feet, to be able to bring him around the WHOLE house without wearing a backpack with an oxygen tank on our backs, to be unattached to anything for the first time in his life!!!  But then the other day he started having feeding issues and just was much more tired.  So consulted the BPD clinic and put him back on oxygen.  The BPD clinic has been a little concerned about his weight gain and so we need to make sure he is getting his calories to build new lung tissue and catch up gradually to where he should be for his actual age.  So far so good.  Today is his 2nd day back on oxygen and he is back to eating really well!

He was 5.1kg or 11lb 4oz at his appointment on Tuesday of this week.  We are averaging about one doctor appointment or clinic visit per week.  The visiting nurses stopped coming after 6 weeks.  We went on our first walk this week when the weather was around 60 degrees.  It was so nice to get out even for a short bit!  I'm definitely looking forward to warmer weather when we can get outside and let our guard down a little bit and bring Joshua out!

First walk - March 10 - one of the days you were without O2

Comfy and warm snuggled up to mom