Matthew Update #1

The day started off pretty well for our new little guy. At about 12:30 last night, he got his first visit from Mommy, who spent about an hour and a half just looking at him and stroking his hands and hair. There wasn't much change in his status, so he still had his little elephant trunk on (that's what we called his air tubes...check out the picture). We finally left the room at about 2:00 and conked out until the morning.

We had a great surprise when we woke up today...Christy & Thor had baby Katelyn at around 2:30, just about the same time we were getting to sleep! She weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz, 19 inches, and is absolutely beautiful (see the next picture). Congrats to the Thors!!

The big moment of the day came at about 12:15 this afternoon...Holly was finally allowed to go up and hold Matthew. This was particularly exciting because she hadn't had any opportunity to hold him up to this point. What a wonderful way to kick off the day. The nurses put a surgical gown on her, unplugged all of Matthew's various monitors and passed the little guy to Holly. She was SO pleased to finally give him a hug, and he seemed to be thrilled to be in her arms, too!

The grandparents (minus my dad, who had to run out of town last night and will return this evening) came down this afternoon and brought Chris along. The poor little guy hasn't really even seen his brother up close, except to see him through the windows of the nursery. He doesn't really get what's going on, and it's hard to fill him in without scaring him. We just keep telling him that Mommy and Daddy are going to visit the doctor when we go visit Mattew. He's really excited to meet his little brother, and I can't wait to see how they get along.

The grandparents naturally went back to visit with Matthew, and everyone's completely enamored with him (not surprising...). I think they're really looking forward to holding him, too. It's really been tough to be in the "no touching" zone.

On a positive note, the doctor took Chris's goofy elephant hose off today and inserted more standard nose-plug-style air hoses. They're going to lower the level of oxygen that they're giving him, and plan on trying to feed him a bit through an IV this evening. The new air hose is under a 12-hour test period, and then we'll see what happens next. Can't wait to see how that works out! I'll keep updating here as things progress!