Sorry for the delay in updating - we got to hold him again today!! Because of all of his tubes, it is a bit of a commitment to hold him (it is a bit of an ordeal for the nurses to organize all of his tubes and get him moved out of his bed. Ofcourse it is completely worth it. I held him for about an hour and forty-five minutes, and Josh held him for close to two hours. He's still pretty uncomfortable today, but better than yesterday. Chest-tube output yesterday was about 40 TOTAL (that is from both tubes combined!!) so we are continuing to make progress there. Dr. Rouse was discussing maybe Monday to start the tube feeds. Neonatology is still being conservative on the weaning, but said they expected to get more aggressive in a day or two, depending on how he is doing.

We enjoyed some more visitors yesterday and today. Thanks to everyone who came by, it really is nice to break up the routine. We also got an especially nice break yesterday evening. Another family with a baby in our module invited us to their home for a cookout. Their little boy (featured in a pic below, watching Cars with Justin and Kendrick) has become friends with Justin and Kendrick. All three had a ball playing outside and eating at the little picnic table together. It was a nice taste of "normal" for an evening, and we really appreciated it. That has been another amazing part of this experience - getting to know the other families and hearing their stories. Each story is so different, yet with many overlapping commonalities.