Happy 1 Week, Lincoln!!! 8/18

Wow...it's been a whirlwind of a week, but somehow I can't believe a week has passed already. I cried again this morning because, when we arrived, I saw that his IV was yet again in a new place. The nurse assured be that it's nothing odd---babies just don't do well with IVs. It just hurts me to know that he has to keep going through that.

Mom made several little receiving blankets and burp rags for us that we'll now use in the NICU. They encourage us to bring in our own things so we feel a sense of ownership and parenthood in an abnormal circumstance. Mom had to say goodbye to little Link today, as she flew home this afternoon. She was so sad, knowing that he'd grow astronomically before she'd see him again. THANK HEAVEN! I want him to get big and pudgy! Mom has been so great to help us along every step of the way. Thanks, mom!

This afternoon, Lincoln had a cranial ultrasound. It's a standard procedure taken with micropremies (premies up to 32 weeks) to determine if they have any bleeding in the brain. Tomorrow we conference with his care team to kind of get on the same page and develop a plan and go over the results of the ultrasound. Hopefully all is well. Brent and I are currently trying to develop a regular visit plan, as driving the half hour there and half hour back multiple times a day is wearing on us and leaving us with very little time. I may do a single, very lengthy visit instead of twice a day for a couple hours. We'll see. I get so anxious to see him with any long periods of time in between. It's hard. I wont lie. Nothing makes me feel better than just being with my little dude.

OKAY...NEW INFO!!!!!! We just went back to visit Lincoln tonight, and the most exciting thing happened! The nurse that was on at the time was commenting on how ahead of his time Lincoln is and then asked if he had been sucking on a binkie or anything and how much milk I was producing. We let her know that he was indeed doing a lot of sucking and that I was producing plenty. She then decided that we should just try nursing. Usually they don't really do that until 32 weeks or so, but we went ahead and tried and IT WORKED!!!!!!!! Lincoln fed for about 10 minutes and then fell into a deep sleep! It felt like such a victory! He's so young, and is still on a feeding tube, but we're going to get him fattened long before expected if we keep this up! I can't describe really how happy it made us. Better feeding means better progression and therefore an earlier time home. This is soooooooooooooo exciting! It's worth the tears!