Monday (February 27)

Silas has been doing great since his surgery.  He was a little sore for the first few hours and would cry when he moved his legs but that didn't last long.  He has two small incisions that are healing up just fine.  He has been taking most of his bottles and is working up to taking every one of them.  They took the nasal cannula (that gives him a tiny puff of air) off of him on Saturday.  He went without it until Sunday night but then he had to have it put back on.  He was having too many desaturations (not enough oxygen flowing in his body) without it.  Basically, he just wasn't breathing as well without it, especially while he was eating.  It wears him out to take his bottles.  The doctor compared him taking one bottle to us running one mile.  It takes a lot of energy out of his little body to do that.  But he is working hard on it and if he gets to the point where he can take every one of his bottles, he can go home.  The doctor said maybe this weekend if Silas holds up his end of the bargain.  We shall see.

On Saturday Jason and I took our two required classes - a discharge class and a cpr class.  It was not fun at all and I don't think it should be required.  The discharge class was total common sense stuff.  "When you give your baby a bath, make sure the water is not too hot and not too cold.  If the baby's butt is red, you might want to use some Desitin."  This is my third baby, yeah, I got it.  I was a little annoyed by the whole thing.  Especially since the girl sitting next to me (who took notes and totally needed to be there because she had no common sense) smelled like an ashtray.  She gave me an instant headache from her stench and I wanted to puke the whole time I was in the classroom.  It was not a pleasant experience.  As for the cpr class, it was a nice refresher that a nurse could have went over with us in the room in about 10 to 15 minutes.  Instead we sat in a classroom for an hour and a half next to a chimney with bright blue hair that hadn't been washed in a month.   If you smoke like a freight train, you need to bathe regularly.  Soap is cheap.  Heck, it's actually free in the hospital.  I know Jesus loves her though and I should try harder.  I am going to work on that.

We were back home on Sunday and Jason and I and the girls all had a nice lunch with my parents.  After that Jason and my Dad took the girls fishing.  Mom and I hung some uppercase living and a curtain that Mom had made for Silas' room.  (Actually, she hung it all and I watched.)  Then I had to empty out my freezer of all of my breastmilk to make room for this week's breastmilk.  I took all that I had to my Aunt Angie's and filled up her deep freeze.  I now have breastmilk stored in at least four locations across town.  I am always looking for more freezers to fill though.

Now today, I am back in St. Louis.  Silas was glad to see his Mommy today.  He has had a great day.  On Saturday he weighed 5 lb 4 oz but then on Sunday he was back down to 5 lb 2 oz.  Tonight he weighed 5 lb 3 oz.

Here are some recent pictures:

This is one of my favorite little outfits.  It is from his "Aunt Penny"

 and is a size newborn!  He has outgrown almost all of his preemie clothes!

This is on the morning of his surgery.  This is what they put him in

to wheel him to surgery.  Poor baby!

This was taken on Valentine's Day.  I loved this little green sleeper.

It was a preemie size and he was just about too long for it.

Four pounds, 7.8 ounces! 

This beautiful hat was knit for him by his Great Aunt Cheryl.

It just fits and he wears it a lot.  So cute!

In other news, while I drive over here to St. Louis, a lot of my thinking is arranged into facebook statuses.  Although I can not post as I'm driving, here are some random things that cross my mind:

What is so hard to understand about four way stops?  And why do some people feel the need to stop 500 feet behind the white stop line just so they technically stopped first?  That doesn't count!  Scoot your butts on up to the stop sign and wait your turn!

If you are being passed on the right, you are in the wrong.  Get over.  Driving slow in the fast lane should be punishable by up to a year in Mexico and not being allowed bottled water.

Why does everybody from Iuka feel the need to pull out on Route 50 without fully stopping?  Are their lives so busy that they can't wait two seconds for me to drive past.  Does my car have a sign on it that says "I love when people from Iuka pull out in front of me!"?  (This whole statement can also apply to people from Watson who pull out onto Route 45.)

Just because it is called Route 50, does not mean that you have to drive 50.  The speed limit is 55.  Please at least go that fast.

Not all of my thoughts are about other people's driving habits though.  Every time I drive by Barnes Hospital on my way to Mercy I think that they should just add a few turrets and change their name to Hogwarts.  How cool would that be?

Here are some pics from tonight.  This blue outfit I bought for Silas right after I found out I was having a boy.  It is his "coming home" outfit but we are trying it out tonight.  It is a size newborn and is big on him.  Every brand is different in size, that's for sure.  The orange tube in his nose is his feeding tube and he is trying to yank it out in all of these pictures.  He is also hungry and is saying "quit taking my picture and feed me!"

That's all for tonight.  Thank you for the prayers and please continue them for our little man.