Welcome Home Asher!

Today, Asher turned two weeks old.  It seems like a lifetime ago that he was born with all that has happened in between.  I can’t believe it has only been two weeks.  It has been so amazing to see his progress every day, from getting off the ventilator, getting off the oxygen, improving on his feedings, getting out his drainage tubes, removing his feeding tube, and now finally going home.  We still have a lot to work on, mainly his bottle feeds and helping him gain more energy to eat, but I feel like he is steadily improving each day.  I look back at how far he has come in just even the last two days, and I feel like now he will just keep making steady progress in the right direction.

This morning, after the nurse weighed Asher, she came in and told me that his weight was up.  When the cardiologist came by this morning, he said we could go home today.  We still need to work on the volumes of Asher’s feeds, and he is still struggling a bit with the higher calorie formula (diarrhea and some occasional throwing up), but not as much as before. 

One last hospital bed picture (well, at least for this time around):

James came up with Shane to pick me up from the hospital.  They had a wagon to load up our stuff in, and James had fun riding in it while Shane took our stuff to the car.  He also found a bag of Doritos Shane had up there, so that kept him occupied for awhile also.  Before long, we were ready to go! 

 

Davis stayed home with Grandma to help get the house ready for Asher’s arrival.  When we got home, we saw him sitting in the window watching for us, and a huge grin broke out on his face!  We also found this note he had written on the front door.

 

Davis and James were so excited to hold Asher.  They each took a turn as soon as we arrived home.  I had to make them go away when I fed him his bottle because they wanted to be right there, giving him toys, holding up his doggy in his face, etc. while he tried to eat.  Poor kid.  Guess he might as well get used to it now.

       

A little bit later, they each wanted another turn, until they heard Asher making some sounds in his diaper.  Then they were done.  :)

 

Uncle Kelly also stopped by, and he got to hold Asher for the first time too.  I’m sure Asher will love his Uncle Kelly as much as his brothers do!

 

We didn’t get any pictures of Landon or my mom holding Asher, so we’ll have to do that tomorrow.  It is so good to be home!  We still have a long ways to go with Asher, but thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and following along on with Asher’s surgery and recovery in the hospital.  I can’t believe we have to redo it all in just a couple of months for his second surgery, but we’ve heard the recovery is much faster and easier the second time around.  Now we’ve just got to rest up, keep getting Asher to eat, and enjoy having this sweet little baby in our home.