Oh Crap!

That's what I thought tonight when the nurse said that Thomas could come home as soon as a week. This probably isn't the case and we've gotten lots of different answers to that question, but as I was sitting there holding Thomas, I got more than a little overwhelmed at the prospect of becoming a full time dad. Not that I don't want Thomas at home, but the reality of the moment, the idea that a team of nurses and a wall of sensors would all of a sudden just disappear and Rebecca and I would be left to our own devices with only the internet to guide us...man, I'm not sure I'm ready. And despite 4 months of just hanging out, without a care in the world, I haven't managed to get my head above water to really mentally prepare for this possibility.

I keep telling myself (and Rebecca) that we'll figure it out and to look at all of the complete knot-heads (I sincerely apologize to any knot-head that may be reading this, I'm not referring to you specifically) that manage to raise kids, that we can surely pull this off. Its amazing to me that child-rearing, an occurrence that is so common, millions of examples of it, all over the world, right now as I type this, something that has obviously gone on for centuries, well before books and classes and Barney DVDs can be so daunting and completely mysterious. You'd think someone would have figured out a way to fully prepare people for this.

So I kind of yada yada'd all of you between the last post and today. I guess its only fair to catch you up on what's been going on since Sunday when I last left you. As you may or may not recall, they took Thomas off of the ventilator Sunday. Well yesterday, they decided to give bottle feeding a try. Thomas is now free and clear of all mouth and nose related tubes. They started out with Pedialite which I got a kick out of, because I've used it before for races (it does a great job of keeping you hydrated, but its like drinking syrup). He did really well with that, so today they tried milk and he did awesome. He's getting fed 8 times a day now and getting about 10 ccs of milk each time. He's doing exceptionally well, able to drink most of it. At first, he gets a little excited and fills his mouth up and forgets to swallow and ends up spitting some out, but once he calms down, he paces himself and does real well. Tonight he was hungry for more, so the nurse is going to see if they will increase the amount.

Other positive things, Thomas is off the anti-biotics and they've stopped testing his blood gas because he's breathing so well. He also weighs 5 pounds, 5 ounces. The end appears to be drawing near, but there are some things that we know have to happen. Thomas still has to have his hernia operation and we have 2 classes that we need to take (baby cpr and hospital discharge).

Things are moving quickly. I will try to keep you up to date. Big, big day though.