Promised pictures

Last night Nurse Tamara gave me the privilege of giving my little guy a bath.  What a joy!  Up to this point, all I’ve been able to do is hold (but only three times a day), change diapers, take his temperature, do his oral care, and change his probe.  He was awake for the whole bath and seemed to enjoy it.  

My favorite part?  Washing that beautiful dark hair.  

Then we snuggled a little 

then put him in this cute onesie, his first gift from MomMom.  

What a happy boy!

Victor weighs 3 lbs. 6 oz. now.  As promised, here is a close-up of that double chin from two days ago.

He is amazing everyone with his ability to latch and suck.  Learning to feed himself is still weeks away.  He seems to be starting to show that he’s uncomfortable and hungry just before a feeding.  These feeds that used to be over 2 hours (ending just in time to start the next one) are being compacted.  They’ve been 90 minutes for a time and yesterday went down to 80 minutes.  Later today they will go down to 70 minutes.  So far he seems to be tolerating these changes well although episodes of minor reflux during a feeding does tend to result in forgetting to breathe.

Praise God for all of these steps in the right direction!

His high flow nasal cannula is still at 2.0 LPM and often at 24% (room air is 21%).  Remember when we were happy if he went below 30%?  Pray that his lungs continue to mature and strengthen and that there are no steps backward (which would be common) in this area.  The bradies should taper off and disappear around 34 to 35 weeks (Victor would be 33 weeks tomorrow).  I can’t wait until we start counting his age in weeks since birth (8 tomorrow) instead of his gestational age. 

I haven’t talked much about paperwork and the legal process.  It is not an understatement to say that this is the worst part of adoption.  Well, so is the financial part but it is what it is.  At each step of the way it seems like someone is asking for something else that we have to scramble to come up with, or worse yet, we need to go to another party to get but that party insists that it can’t be produced until the first party provides something.  And then paperwork gets lost or misplaced, including a refund we should be receiving which of course holds up our ability to pay back adoption expenses.  Please pray for clear sailing in everything!

ICPC is the interstate compact that must be completed each time you adopt outside of your home state.  Utah was easy and we passed the day the paperwork was submitted.  Pennsylvania has a reputation for being much more difficult.  We are at least thankful that they agreed to start this process before Victor is discharged and it is our prayer that Pennsylvania agrees to clear us before discharge.  Otherwise, Victor will be allowed to travel to any US state EXCEPT Pennsylvania.  Right now the paperwork is in the birth mother’s home state as that is one of PA’s requirements.  At this point there is plenty of time but we don’t want it to come down to the wire.

There was the possibility of getting a medical transfer to send Victor to Hershey once he was stable and if we were cleared to enter PA.  The hospital out here looked into it but unfortunately, it will not be possible.  Even the hospital social worker was shocked at how much they wanted to charge for this.  I thanked him for his efforts but assured him that since we just adopted, there was no chance of adding this on top of everything.  Of course, if we sold our house and moved our whole family into a little 1 bedroom apartment…

Speaking of our family moving, they’ve been on the move since yesterday morning and have made great time traveling west.  They are currently in Colorado where they plan some sightseeing, leg stretching, enjoying a nice meal at the restaurant of relatives of a friend (got that?), and a good night’s sleep in something other than a van bench.  Since there’s a table of police officers right next to me in the restaurant right now, I won't tell you how fast the Good Doctor drove to make it this far so soon.  I can only pray that my sons never catch that bad habit from their father.  Pray for continued safety, good health, and unity among the troops.  I just heard that HopeAnne is suffering some altitude sickness from her trip up to Pike's Peak.  Let's just say that once upon a time I left part of myself at the Grand Canyon.  Hope chose to do so on the way down from Pike's Peak.  Not so fun now but it will make the story better when we relive it at every King family Christmas for years to come.  The grandchildren will love this part.  This can last several days, however, so please pray that she is fine as soon as she arrives at the bottom of the mountain.