Homecoming and a Birthday!

HOMECOMING!

He's home!  After a weekend of me rooming in at the hospital to learn how to care for him and use his monitor and feeding equipment and a crazy day of getting his prescriptions all in order, we finally got to bring our baby boy home on Monday.  I am still very tired, but it is SO wonderful to all be home together!  He's been doing great - there really is something medicinal and therapeutic about just being home, even for a little guy like him who was coming home for the first time. 

 The girls adore him.  Elsa comes running when she hears any beeping or alarm to make sure I'm attending to the baby and Nora can hardly keep her hands off him!  She follows me whenever I walk back to our bedroom to pick him up and asks "hug?  hug?  hug?" until she gets to hug him.

 Oliver continues to have occasional bradicardia episodes when his heart-rate drops, but thankfully they have been rare since we've come home (which especially nice because his home apnea monitor alarm is loud!).  He still has a long way to go in learning to nurse too, but that has been considerably easier to work with him on since we've been home.  We get to see the kidney doctor at a nephrology clinic this week and the heart doctor at the cardiology clinic next week.  Thankfully they have clinic days in Medford so we won't have to drive to Portland again yet!  Thank you all for your continued prayers and support for our little one. 

A BIRTHDAY!
The day after Oliver cam home, Elsa turned 4!  FOUR!  So we invited three little friends over for a princess birthday tea party.  We decorated crowns, listened to Daddy read Bible princess stories, and had a PB&J lunch on pink plates with pink strawberries and pink watermelon and pink tea in purple cups and then had a pink castle birthday cake with pink forks under pink balloons and pink streamers.  For a mama that doesn't like pink or frosting, this was a big deal.  But for our darling four-year-old fairy princess I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy birthday, Elsa Kate!