Well I don't know how many people are still looking for an update about Drew three months later!  But here it is, summarized as concisely as I can.  I want to add some more details about these events later, but I'm not promising anything.

Nov. 27th - Drew is home!  He has been since Thanksgiving Day!  What a day it was, too.  Paula went to the hospital in the morning and I took the kids to church.  She called in the morning to let me know that Drew was free to go home.  After church the kids went to the Collison's and spent the day where we had expected to have dinner.  Paula and I brought our baby home in the afternoon with oxygen and a monitor.  A larger O2 tank was delivered shortly after that and Kerri brought the kids, and Thanksgiving dinner to us.

Having a baby on oxygen was familiar - Max had come home with it too.  The monitor only alarmed a couple of times for real reasons.  Several other times we stepped on the cable and disconnected the leads by accident.  The sensing was of his heart and respiratory rates - so we had to get used to not seeing his O2 saturation.

Drew was on a schedule of eating every three hours - even over night.  Paula and I traded night feedings for several weeks while she also was training him to nurse.  After a long process of training, and pumping milk for him somewhere around one thousand times he finally became an exclusive nurser January 7th (day 132).

Drew was featured in the Edmond Outlook magazine's December article.  If you want to read it, click here.

We had both sets of grandparents here for a time.  They overlapped the weekend of December 14th which was the day Drew was baptized.  The Sunday School Christmas program was also that day, so the grandparents got to see Max and Gina in the play.  We were warned to avoid crowds, so Drew wasn't there for much more than his own baptism, however.

Dec. 24th - We celebrated Christmas as a whole family and Drew made it to his first full worship on Christmas Eve.  He pretty well slept through it which was good because Paula didn't have to carry the baby, the oxygen, and the monitor out of the church by herself.   

Drew's sleeping pattern has been good.  He sleeps better at night than during the day and he started that pretty early.  The hospital encouraged us to wake him after three hours so he'd get enough calories to grow.  The pediatrician allowed four hours.  Because he's been growing well we're able to follow his cues now.  So, most nights he's only up once or twice.  And he goes right back to sleep after eating - so Paula's only up with him for a short time.

Drew's lungs have gotten progressively better.  His need for oxygen was not too significant even when he came home and we were hopeful that he'd have it discontinued at his first follow-up appointment.  We were close - on Jan. 6th we were allowed to take his canula off during the day and only give him oxygen at night.  We also got an oximeter to measure his saturation at bedtime.  Just over a week later he went overnight without it.  And on Jan. 22nd he was completely done with the oxygen.  Another follow-up appt. was on Feb. 10th and the monitors and all of the oxygen was discontinued - it was picked up from the house on the 11th.

Because of his problems with his lungs we are still keeping him isolated somewhat.  RSV is a serious condition and precautions have included washing hands and using what Gina has called "hanitizer" (hand-sanitizer).  He's like a regular baby now, so soon we'll expose him to more crowds - including the church.  We try to keep people from touching him, though that can be hard.

Some other fun facts:

• Drew laughed for the first time on 2/15 when Max jumped up and said "boo".  He did it a few times but, of course, quit before I could record it
• He smiles a lot and seems to try to talk to us
• He puts his hands and blankets in his mouth and drools a bunch - so he might be a mouth-kid which the other two weren't or he might be on the verge of teething.
• He went to the talent show at church and we put a sign on his seat that said "Caution, Do Not Touch, I Drool"
• Drew's second church service was Ash Wednesday, noon
• He was weighed today - and is 10lbs, 8oz

One remaining issue is a hernia in Drew's groin.  We've had an appointment with a surgeon who will repair it in late March.  Waiting that long means that it can be outpatient surgery and Drew won't have to stay another  night in the hospital.

We've been so blessed with Drew's continued growth and development.  There have been at least four instances when I've asked the church to pray for something and it happened within the week. The most recent was the oxygen and monitors going away.  Thanks for praying for us, for Drew especially, and thanks for reading the blog.