Our First Week at Home

It has been a crazy first week at home with Landon (as anyone would expect with a newborn!). We're still trying to get down a "routine" and find our way through the first phase of parenthood. My (Allison's) mom left last Thursday and Gary's mom got here on Saturday to stay for about 10 days so we have had lots of help which has been a huge blessing! Landon has been doing well- we still don't have a schedule nailed down yet- he keeps jumping back and forth between "eat every 3 hours" and "snack all day long" which makes it hard to establish any eating/sleeping patterns. His eating is still not quite where it should be, but we're hoping he'll continue to make improvements!

We have doctor's appointments all the time it seems! Last week he had 2 visit from a home health nurse (which is great because we don't have to go anywhere!) and appointments with the pediatrician and cardiologist (both in Co Springs). This week we have 2 home health appts again as well as one in Denver yesterday for a follow up with the team there (surgeon, nurse practitioner, dietician, etc) and the cardiologist here. It was so cool to be at the Children's Hospital on Halloween- all of the staff and so many kids were dressed up in costume and having a great time- you'd hardly know it was a hospital at all! It seems crazy with all of the appointments, but I'm grateful to have so many people checking up on Landon! The team in Denver wants to see him eating a little better and gaining weight more rapidly than he has been. Yesterday we was 8 lbs though, so he definitely has been growing since birth when he was 6lb 9oz!

Gary is back at work aside from trying to make the occasional doctor's appointment but it's a very busy time in college sports so he's needed there as much as possible! Right now the biggest thing for Landon is gaining weight so that's our focus right now and it takes up a lot of my time! He's still in fortified breastmilk and if he doesn't gain weight at the pace they'd like to see then they would likely up the calorie count of the fortification but at that point (28 cal/oz) it can start to be really hard on his digestive system to process. A feeding tube it also not out of the realm of possibility but we are really hoping to not have to go that route.

It sounds like the 2nd surgery (the Glenn Shunt) will likely be when he is about 4-5 months old so that is a ways away but he's already 5 weeks old so it will be here before we know it! We have been so overwhelmed with all of the cards, emails, facebook posts, etc of everyone's prayer and love for us and Landon. We even had a "welcome home" sign greet us when we got back from Denver and found that our freezer had been stocked with meals! Thanks so much for your prayers and support- it will be a long road for sure but God has shown us time and time again that He will provide everything that we need for each day. I'll try to post some pics to the blog tomorrow- many of you have seen them on facebook I'm sure. Landon is such a cutie (in my unbiased opinion :-) He even had a costume for Halloween- he was a very content little turtle!