Day 61 - 2 months!!!

Happy 2nd Month Birthday, Baby!! We all love you!!

Today is day 61 of Joshua's life and hospital stay. We have 45 days left until Christmas and Joshua's hopeful homecoming. We also have just 19 days until surgery!!!!! Today is Joshua's 2nd month Birthday! Wow I can't believe he's already 2 months old! That's 1/6 of a year!! Already, I can't imagine our lives without him. He is such a sweet and wonderful baby. I can't wait to share him with his siblings, our family and friends and the whole world!! He is such a joy and I am so blessed to be his Mommy. I don't know how I deserve 3 awesome kids, but somehow God decided to bless me with them. I'm so grateful.

Joshua is now about 11 pounds 4 ounces. And as you can tell from the pictures he got his tube out of his nose!!!! That happened on Saturday. They had lowered his continuous feedings so low, that his surgeon said it was just silly to leave that tube in, so they took it out. He now has 6 feedings a day of 45 ml each. He is allowed to breastfeed for one of those times, if the schedule allows. We've been able to nurse everyday but today, since Friday. Today was just a little crazy, so we didn't get to, but he's doing awesome with it. He latches on like he's always done it. I can't believe how well he does at it. We did a pre and post weight Friday to see if he was actually getting anything and he was! He drank 22ml in 6 minutes!! The nurses and therapists are astounded at how well he is doing.

He is still getting the continuous feeds into the bottom portion. That's a mix of the ostomy bag output and elacare formula. He's probably going to stay at where he is until surgery. His surgeon doesn't want to "rock the boat", so we're just going to stay where we are for the next 19 days. Wow, 19 doesn't seem so long at all!!

He had his 2 month immunizations today. He was already upset from his nurse assessment, so the shots didn't seem to bother him a ton. Daddy was with him during them. I was glad, I knew that if I was there, I'd be a crying mess. I've always cried at the shots. I hate seeing that look in their face when it happens.

I watched the Bengals game with him this week. We both had jersey's on!! One of the surgeon fellows that has been with him since his surgery, always calls Joshua the Bengals good luck charm. It's so cute!! So here's a couple of pics of us watching the game.. Who-Dey!!!

Is he getting annoyed with the camera already? He needs to get used to it, just ask Noah and Abby!!!

Just a few more pics of my sweet little one. He's so much cuter without the tube on his face! I know he's pretty happy about it being gone as well, especially since he can now have his hands free of mittens!! He is a real happy baby now!!

We have a VERY busy weekend coming up. We have two cousin birthday parties. Both cousins are turning 7! We also have Lowe's Build and Grow, which is the one the kids have wanted to do the most (Jimmie Johnson's garage), a cheerleading meet and greet for Abby and a meeting for Social Security (all babies are eligible for Social Security and Medicaid after they've been hospitalized for more than 30 days) where I have to fill out all the paperwork and have an interview to get that process going. So we'll all be running to this and that and making sure the baby has a parent with him as well. Hopefully it'll all work out. I know it will make those two days go by fast!! Plus it's Steelers week again!! Go Bengals!!

So that's it for now. We're just hanging out until surgery day. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun pictures to share from our crazy weekend!!