Two Weeks

This week is an extremely busy one for me. Today I woke up at 5:30 to pack Ali's wound, spent a full day teaching, went to track practice, drove up to see Ali and Brady, drove back from Minneapolis in rush hour traffic, ate a 15 minute meal with Ali at Subway, went to football booster club meeting, and drove home in time to tuck in Ava and Casey at 8:30 p.m. Tomorrow it's the same schedule minus the booster meeting but adding conferences from 5 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Thursday we have conferences from 7:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. It's going to be hard to squeeze in a visit to Brady the next two days, but I'm determined to make it happen.

Needless to say, we continue to lean heavily on our family to shuttle around Ali and take care of our kids, and we're so thankful for everything they're doing for us.

A quick progress report for today...He was off the nasal cannula for 8 hours last night (from midnight to 8 a.m.). If he's still not breathing completely on his own by the end of this week, they might do another chest x-ray on Friday to check on the progress of his lungs. He took 20 ml by bottle last night. Ali once again nursed Brady for his 2:00 and 5:00 feedings.

The highlight of today was Ali giving Brady a full bath before we left. Since most of the babies in the NICU are premature, they usually use a small storage tub about 12"x12"x6". Brady displaced the water all over his crib. Because of his size, we needed to use the utility sink to rinse out his hair (like they would in a hair salon). Ali loved combing and styling his fluffy hair after the bath. The recommended that we bring our own tub from home for next time. :)

Because of my schedule, I was only able to be with Brady for about an hour today. It's hard to believe that he's been in the hospital for two weeks. I couldn't help thinking that it's taken Brady all of this time and he still isn't as independent as Ava and Casey were immediately after their births.

At the same time, he continues to amaze us with his resiliency and growth. In his short life he's already experienced resuscitation, an ambulance ride, therapeutic hypothermia (whole body cooling), respirators, extubation, a CPAP, high flow and low flow nasal cannulas, multiple blood transfusions, a catheter, hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia (blood sugar levels), kidney and liver problems, a possible seizure, etc. He's overcome a lifetime's worth of adversity in 14 days. We're so proud of our little boy, and we're so thankful for all of the talented doctors and nurses who are working tirelessly to get Brady home to his family.

We continue to feel uplifted by the words of encouragement and prayers from our family and friends. We feel very blessed to have all of you in our lives.

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady