Surprise!

On Friday, our team in the cicu decided William was ready for "the floor". That is the recovery or step down unit, where patients are sent to prepare to go home. They were ready to send him this weekend, but they said they prefer to wait until Monday with such a complicated condition, so that they have a fresh, full staff.

We waited all day, and were becoming discouraged that they would move us. Finally around eight this evening we were ready to go.

Here on the floor, we are monitored still, but less closely. Jared and I will be taking on responsibility for his care. We have the diapers, swaddling, and feeding down. There are still skills we will need to learn, such as administering his meds and placing his ng tube. A big bonus... We can now hold him whenever we want, and we have a bed and shower in our room here!

The most important thing we are focusing on now is feeds. Will missed that valuable first week of feeding, so he is struggling with a bottle. Jared and I are being very patient. He has accomplished so much already, he deserves as much time as he needs for this. It is, however, the main factor in determining when we finally get to go home. Right now he takes about 10 ml out of 60 by bottle, the rest by tube. It has only been a few days so we are still optimistic.

Please continue to pray for Will. As well as he has done, we still have so much to overcome. We are not home yet, and even then we have the difficult interstage period to contend with. We know William is a warrior and will do everything he can, but he is just a baby, only 12 days old, and still needs the immense support he has received to continue.