Irish Blessings

May the sun shine, all day long,

everything go right, and nothing wrong.

May those you love bring love back to you,

and may all the wishes you wish come true!

The blessings of the Irish were on Jackson today. He had a great day! He lost 2 more tubes today. All of his medications are now by mouth, instead of IV. I was lucky enough to not only hold my baby boy but feed him twice today! 

Several weeks ago, we met with one of the two pediatric heart surgeons at Children's. The surgeon explained the procedure that Jackson would have done (arterial switch). He also explained all the potential side effects, set backs, etc. He told us that the biggest obstacle we (as parents) would face once the surgery was over would be feeding. These babies that are born with heart defects that require surgery right away do not get the opportunity to eat/nurse right away like most babies. So getting them to eat is the biggest obstacle we would face. That is the struggle that we are now facing with Jackson. He'll eat a little but not nearly as much as he should be. He might actually get a feeding tube put in to assist him in his eating if he won't take the bottle. 

The best news came this morning with rounds. The attending doctor on duty told me that they have one more tube to take out. They'll take that out tomorrow morning. Once that is out, we should be sent to the step down unit...I cried...Happy tears! I can't believe that we could be sent to the step down unit and kicked out of the CICU! This means we could be home in a matter of days. We are trying not to get our hopes up. We are expecting setbacks to happen. We're kind of just waiting to get the news that Jackson has taken a step back. And that would be fine! We're hanging on his schedule. When he's ready, we'll be ready. 

Here are a few pictures from today's snuggles :) 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. They have definitely worked! Both Jackson and Blair came out of surgery a success. Now they need them for recovery. Please continue to pray for them. They are strong little babies who need your thoughts and prayers.