Last evening and the bottle

Hi all, I promised you more detail this morning. Jensen is now in the Cardiac unit at Riley. This unit has people from infants to, as the nurse put it last night "in their 50's". Once you are a patient at Riley, you can always go back no matter how old you are. Anyway, Jensen is in a private room which is very spacious and includes a fold out couch and bath. He has a nurse each shift that has two patients which is not unlike the NICU. What is unlike the NICU is that the NICU has ten patients and at least 5 nurses and other staff all in the same room. So, Jensen doesn't have as much contact with people, as a matter of fact, if he wakes up he might be alone. Jeff has been spending the nights there and Anna the days. Both Jeff and Anna are working; Anna part time in the evenings, Jeff almost full time days. They have been trying to cover Jensen with their presence and now their two and a half year old daughter Sophia has been able to go up too.





Last evening Anna asked us to go up so if he woke up, someone would be there until Jeff arrived. The Cardiac unit is visitor controlled, and an authorized person has to have a code to get in. Wanda and I have been authorized to enter, and have been since the beginning (Riley's policy learned through the years). We know that it is a privilege to be able to help out Jeff and Anna as these are difficult times. Even family and friends while only having the best of intentions, can become trying on the parents in trying to coordinate visits. That is also one of the reasons I write this blog to keep people updated, saving Jeff and Anna time. I also write this to keep your loving prayers focused on Jensen's needs.




Back to last evening. When we got there he was sleeping so we just hung out for awhile. Then the nurse had to do her assessment which woke him up. Then after going back to sleep for a half hour, he woke up for feeding. They started yesterday to give him a bottle for the first time. Just a little bottle with only 25ml of milk in it. Both Wanda and I got to hold him and give it to him. How truly wonderful that was. He got about 15 ml down with minimal effort, and then the rest was given to him in his tube. So that is great that he can suck, swallow and breathe at the same time. That is answer to prayer. Anna got to feed him earlier in the day too.

This is a long enough post for this morning. Later I will write one on "Jensen's Cannon", so check back often! God Bless you all and keep the whole family lifted up in prayer.