Day 68

Each morning during rounds the doctors say "Walker Pruett hospital day____", and today that number was 68.  Mommy and Granny were talking and it is hard to even wrap our heads around the fact that Walker has been here for 68 days.  That seems like such a short time for our whole lives to be completely changed, but also such along time to be so far from home in a place that has now become like a second home to us.  The nurses told us that once Walker decided to start making gains he would, and they would happen very quickly, boy did they know what they were talking about.

Last Tuesday Walker was in an incubator, with a feeding tube, and still on a high flow cannula.  This Tuesday he is in an open crib maintaining his own temperature, eating completely from a bottle with no feeding tube, and on a regular cannula only on 600(they turned him down over night again).  Oh and did Mommy mention that he now weighs 3lbs. 9.7ozs, he has officially tripled his birth weight!!!!  My what a difference just a week can make when your a little guy!

This morning during rounds the doctors also talked about Walker's hemoglobin and his "retick"(which is how quickly his body is making blood cells).  Those numbers were both very good his hemoglobin was 11.2 which is good and his retick was 8.3 which is really great that means he little body is doing exactly what God intended it to do!  Since both of these numbers were so good they decided to talk Walker off his iron, so now the little guy is on no medicine at all, just Mommy's milk with the fortifier and protein!  We can't say it enough how proud we are of our strong little guy!

This afternoon Walker had a visit from his great great Aunts Hilda, Janice, and Helen, and also his cousin Bryan.  They were excited to see how well the little guy was doing, and had lots of questions about the little guy's journey.  It is truly amazing how far he has come, and we love being able to show him off to family!

Walker also got a visit from Mimi and Bart who were excited to see Walker in his open crib.  Mimi held the little guy and he was looking all around!

Walker had another good day and we are so excited for the progress he is making and hoping that in the very near future we will have our boy home with us.  Like we have said through this entire process, it truly puts everything into perspective and we have such an appreciation for each day we get with our son.  We have waited almost 10 weeks to get him home and we are excited, and also terrified at the same time.  Please pray that Walker grows stronger each day, and is soon ready to go home!

His face while switching to a new cannula, so precious!

Love those cheeks!

All snuggled up

Walker and Mimi

Walker with his ankle bracelets on!