It’s nearly time for Josiah and I to return home! Everyone at Riverside has been lovely but I will be excited to sleep in my own bed tomorrow.

We decided to divide and conquer this morning. Josiah went up to help with Justine’s bath while I stayed in the room to take care of some paperwork, planning the logistics of our return home, and just enjoy some me-time for a hot shower.

Josiah came back with a great report. Justine is up to 21 ml of formula. Jayce is going up to 10 later today. Every increase in tube feeding is one step closer to losing the IV. In fact, Justine could be only a few days away. This would be wonderful because it’s hard for the nurses to find her veins; the poor thing was stuck nearly ten times yesterday in an effort to replace a bad IV. What I would give to make that no longer necessary!

The doctors are still monitoring Jayce’s blood pressure through external checks while we bide time until the echo. Signs are good so far that all appears to be normal.

Later in the day I checked in with the kids briefly and got to help with Jayce’s care. The poor little guy has had a rough day of liver checks, blood draw, and various disturbances. Results from liver ultrasound are in: everything looks fine. He has nothing more than a regular case of newborn jaundice. We didn’t hold him at all today so that he could use the time to sleep and get better.

All in all, another day of growing is in the books. God does a great job looking out for them. As for me, I am learning that sometimes it’s best to let Josiah visit them on our behalf while I stay away and let the emotions level out. The tears are less frequent when I am rested and not overwhelmed, and I’m sure the kids appreciate staying a little drier!