Quick note from Sleep Deprivation Land...

Hello friends-
Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know- YES! We have fallen off the planet :)
Actually many of you have been kind enough to call and leave messages for us- but we have had a few more challenges this week with coming home. Tuesday we followed up with a visit from our pediatrician and found out Josiah was really jaundiced. So we have been wading through that all week long with a Billy Blanket, or a photo-light therapy blanket that helps the infant pass the Billy-rubens out of their system. As soon as we started Josiah on the therapy- he responded very quickly. What I mean is that- jaundiced infants usually are somewhat lethargic- well our precious little Josiah turned into a vigorous little Boobivore (you know, carnivore+meat eater, boobivore=breastfeeder) and wanted to eat every 2-2.5 hours which was a lot of work for Dana and I and even less sleep than normal. We are still doing the 2 person feedings where after Dana breast feeds, I finger feed Josiah with my little finger and a small syringe w/ a catheter tube full of breast milk that Dana has pumped- the goal is to get Josiah his required amount of food and still build his stamina and consistent sucking reflex. The other result of the photo-light therapy is that the infants "pass" the billy-rubens through their stools (I know, I could have said poop- but stool is just so much more medically appropriate). So Josiah has been blowing out his diapers at least once every hour or two. His poor little bum has gotten a bit raw- so we have regularly been ministering to it with applications of Desitin.

We officially got to take him off the photo light therapy blanket last night and we had another turn- Josiah after being the ravenous little boobivore that he has been for the last 4 days- all of a sudden stopped eating which was a huge concern for us and we made another visit to the pediatrician today. Fortunately all is well with our little man, we found out that this sometimes happens with preemie babies. Go figure. I wish he could have let us know- we could have slept longer- HAH! He has to have his blood drawn again tomorrow morning- to confirm that his billy-ruben count has stayed down after he has been off the blanket for 24 hours. If it has crept back up there could be some more photo-light therapy in store for him. If it has stayed down then we can move on and count this as another milestone for our little man!

So that's the latest. Dana and I have been wanting to take some pictures of our little guy and his photo-blanket to post. When he is on it- we call him our little glow-worm. It's very cute. So that's all for now- more later. Until then, a very sleepy Shawn & Dana bid you Adieu...