Come Monday, it will be alright...

Greetings,

For you Jimmy Buffet fans out there, you know the next line of that song is, "Come Monday, I'll be holding you tight." That's right! If all goes well today and tonight Dan and I will be taking Jonas home with us on Monday! It has been over five months and we are just thrilled they both have come so far. Jonas has been doing great with just a little step backwards in his eating volume and weight gain, but on the whole, Jonas really loves to eat. Yesterday I was feeding him for most of four and a half hours with just a couple of breaks to try and get him to sleep before realizing that he really wanted more. Sometimes I get so caught up in the numbers for both Elsa and Jonas--they need to take in so much at each feeding and if they don't we are behind for our total on the day. For Jonas that might mean not coming home and for Elsa, who is already a little behind on gaining weight, it might mean not getting what she needs to grow appropriately. I had another great talk with a couple of nurses on Friday that reminded me of some truths. We need to learn to trust ourselves and trust that things are going to work out. If they are crying and refusing to eat anymore there is probably a reason why they can't eat right now and it's okay. You can't force-feed a baby. That might sound obvious, but we really have been trying to get Elsa in particular to take more and it really doesn't work out to force it. I learned about trusting myself to know her when after six days on a new reflux medication she seemed to be crying at every feeding and was really in pain. After calling and getting the prescription changed again she has been a new baby the past couple of days. She still has her feeding issues, but at least she is not crying, arching and turning red every time she tries to eat. Jonas will be coming home on oxygen (we have a tank that is as tall as me in the living room!) and an oxygen and apnea monitor. The monitor has the loudest alarm I have ever heard on it so I am hoping that it doesn't alarm as often as the ones in the hospital do, but whatever it takes to get him home. I am so thrilled to think about not having to leave one of my babies everyday. It will be so nice to be able to spend a day at home and not think about rushing to get to the hospital daily. We will have doctors' appointments twice a week for about a month, but hopefully they will slow down after that. I am also thrilled that Dan will be able to be home with us as well. When the babies were born it snowed and then it was winter vacation. He did not use paternity leave when Elsa came home because we thought it would be better used when they were both home, so with some personal leave thrown in there Dan will be away from work for a little over two weeks! What a blessing! We will post some pictures tomorrow.

The light is so bright at the end of this tunnel I can barely stand it. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

Love, Mari, Dan, Elsa and Jonas