Work was pretty busy today.  I finally did the paperwork for a sale I made last week then got a lead for two good sites that I’ll have to work on tomorrow.  I’d have done it today, of course, but I had to leave the house a little before 3:00 to pick up medicine for the pets (very late in doing that) and to meet Amanda at the baby doctor.

Things were fine.  I’m not sure exactly why she wanted me to come with her today.  I didn’t go to the last one and at this point they’re just checking to make sure everything is on track with her.  We did get to hear the heartbeat, which was very loud and strong.  Dr. Brown said that Milly’s heart sounded like a full termer.

When we finished up there we went to go see Nick, Amy and Eli Warkentien, but not until we stopped by a Port City Java to pick up smoothies for us, Nick and Amy.  Nick had told Amanda a couple weeks ago that they’d want some in the hospital, so we upheld that for them.

When we got to the hospital we saw that someone else had beat us on the guest list, but Amanda and I were the first people to the room.  Eli was doing better, but he wasn’t breastfeeding very well and when we got there Amy was feeding him out of a syringe.  A few minutes later Amy’s parents showed up.  They’d just arrived from Michigan and were eager to hold their first grandson.  So they beat us to holding him, but Amanda was the first person to hold Eli outside of nurses and family.  (I was second).

Amanda and I left after a little while to go back home.  Nick asked if we wouldn’t mind grabbing a few things from their house, so while Amanda went straight home I went and picked up a Boppy, a hard dryer and the USB cable for their digital camera.  We picked up some BoJangles for ourselves then went on back.

Not long after we got back to the hospital, Tim and Jenny Cain and Joel and Mia Kay showed up.  Everybody hung out for a little bit and most of us had some of the cake that, I think it was Joel and Mia, had brought.  Tim and Jenny went to check in on Sarah and Jerod Coe.  Sarah’s another Port City Community Church staff member, and they had their daughter, Emma, on Saturday.

We left after a bit with Amy’s parents following us.

Here’s the update Nick sent out today:

Eli did so good today! By late afternoon, he was pretty much acting like any healthy baby would. Last night, they were able to get a lot of blood/fluid out of his stomach (from the birth; stuff that shouldn’t be there). They had gotten a lot of this out of him an hour or so after he was born as well. We’re pretty sure that it played a huge part in his behavior. He probably was not feeling very good, which may have caused the jitters (which are gone now) and contributed to not wanting to breast feed. He has perked up since then, and made a lot of progress with the breastfeeding, although it still takes quite a while to get him started. It’s very difficult to keep him awake while trying to breastfeed. He seems to do better when he’s awake by his own will. Amy did have to pump once so that we could feed him from a syringe (that was the first feeding today), but he has been doing better feeding on his own. As for the fluid in his stomach, they had to put a tube in his nose that went to his stomach to try and drain any remaining fluid that could be there. The tube was put in last night and taken out late this morning.

I forgot to mention in my last post that his white blood cell count was high. They said this could be stress related, or he could be fighting some kind of infection. If it was stress related, they expected that it would come down by this morning, but it had not, so they decided to do a blood culture, to test for infection. This requires that the bloodwork be monitored for 48 hrs. His blood was drawn at 3:00pm on Sunday. As of 3:00pm today, it looked really good. If it still looks good tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3:00pm, they will determine that there is no infection, and its quite possible we will be able to go home then. This morning, they decided that he needed to be given some antibiotics in case there is an infection (they did not feel that they could wait 48 hrs. to start treating this). So, Eli has an I.V. in his head where they give him his antibiotics. That will be taken out tomorrow, given that his blood culture comes back well.

Our poor little guy has been through a lot in his first couple days, but we are so glad for the progress he has made! He is a very happy baby. He likes to sleep whenever he is not being bothered by the nurses. He doesn’t cry very often, and when he does, it’s not for long. He tends to just be fussy more often. When he does cry, his lower jaw quivers, which causes his cry to quiver. It’s quite pitiful! 🙂

Amy is doing great. Of coarse, she’s still very sore, especially in her neck and shoulders, from having to look down so much while trying to breastfeed. We’re both quickly getting used to this whole idea of having a baby to take care of. He’s got quite a personality!

I chatted with my brother-in-law, Michael Mercer, tonight via Facebook.  He was commenting on some of the Costa Rica pictures which told me, before he actually did tell me, that he’s missing the place.  I think he’s nearly depressed in missing it, (posta-Costa depression) and I can hardly blame him.  There, we ate and surfed and checked were immersed in a completely different culture.  Here he works and goes to school, which is not nearly as exciting.

Zach Dotsey