Best Day By Far

<--(Mommy holding Maguire for the first time!) Every day you walk into the NICU it's the same drill: Sign in, get a new name badge sticker, wash your hands up to the elbow for like 3 hours (ok, it's 3 minutes, but still) and then head back to the room. It's not a long walk, but in your head you're thinking so many things. "What will they tell us today? How many tubes will be taken out of their heads? Will there be new tubes? What are they going to look like today? I hope everything's better...We could really use a good day..."

And thankfully today was the best day yet. The biggest triumph was that we got to hold Maguire. He was born 4 days ago already, and we hadn't held him even once. The nurse said that he's very stable now and breathing really well, so just for a few minutes we got to get him out of the isolet and hold him. It was SO very awesome to get our hands on him, and to be able to squeeze him tight. I just broke down when I got that little man in my hands for the first time. Carrie just laughed and giggled when she got a turn. Who knew I was the cry baby?? But Carrie said today, "Now it feels like we actually have two babies!" It's hard to get it into your head that they're both ours, because we've barely had a chance to touch the little guy. Also, Maguire had a spinal tap to test the fluid so they can make sure he doesn't have an infection in his brain. Those test results came back and they look good. So there's a little less to worry about. The full results should be back in a day or two.
<--(Maguire's first kiss from his Pop)

Meantime, Alex is doing great. He continues to eat very well, and nursing is starting to come along. He still has a feeding tube, but for the most part he's eating very well without it. Hopefully it can come out soon. One less tube would be nice.

There's still no clear timeline on when we can take one or both of them home, but hopefully that will start to take shape over the next couple of days. It seems like if Alex keeps eating well and getting bigger, he could come home soon. Maguire might take a little while longer, but he's starting to eat some, and hopefully he'll get stronger in the coming days. They're both a little jaundice now too, but that's normal. They're both under lights for the time being. But only Maguire gets to wear the sweet shades...you'll see what I'm talking about in the pictures below.

Ellie's still doing pretty well too, considering her Mom and Dad are gone a lot lately. She's playing with Carrie's parents and they're having a great time together. Ellie got a new Barbie from her baby brothers today too. She's been wanting one for weeks (those advertisers on the Disney Channel are genius) so when she opened it she said, "I've been talking about this Barbie, it was on that commercial!" It also has butterfly wings...bonus.

Just another big THANK YOU again to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. We can feel them each and every day! We're so blessed to have so many friends and family members to support and love us!

-Maguire and his sweet shades. They're to protect is little eyes from the spotlight they put on him for the jaundice. Where did that baseball come from?? That's weird...

Alex has a baseball too. Crazy...