DAY 38- SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2008

ANDREW: Today Andrew continues to do very well and is steadily gaining strength. Every one of his feedings have been within 2 to 4 ounces which is right on target. Even though we try to see him two to three times a day, it has become ever more difficult to leave him at the hospital each day. He is in such desperate need to be held more and shown more affection. He has been in the hospital for more than five weeks now and it is beginning to wear on everyone. But after tomorrow we hope the his remaining days in the hospital will be soon over. Andrew is scheduled to have surgery on his left kidney tomorrow (Monday) at 12:30 pm. So his last feeding from the bottle will be tomorrow at 4:30 am, and he won't be able to eat until about 24 hours after his surgery. He will then be fed nutrients from an IV during that time. We are very glad that they allowed him a couple weeks to gain his strength before his surgery, so his recovery time should be quicker. We are not sure exactly what all will be involved in the surgery, but they will most likely be repositioning one of the ureters which connects his left kidney to his bladder so it will drain better. The surgery is expected to take a couple of hours and his recovery should be only a few days. It is amazing how fast babies can recover from so many things done to them. We will definitely update our blog tomorrow to let everyone know how the surgery went. So we request prayers in everyone's heart for him tomorrow that his surgery will go well and his recovery will be quick. (PICTURE: I may be little but I am a keeper)

AARON: Today Aaron got his first ride in our new mini van when we went to church today. It was SO much easier to load and unload him than ever before. We could tell he likes the new van too. We got kind of surprise from him this morning. During the day we keep him on a 3 hour feeding schedule and last night we fed him about 10:30 pm then put him down for the night. Normally we would let him wake us up when he was hungary again, which usually occurs about 2 to 3 am. Well both of us woke up about 6:30 am this morning looking right at each other and realized neither of us had fed him during the night. We were so surprised that he had slept all through the night without letting us know he was hungary. Although he was definitely hungrier than we have ever seen him before, we didn't mind getting the extra sleep. We don't think that he will be sleeping through the night for another couple months from now, but it is another indication that he is continuing to progress in his development. We keep asking each other to pinch us to see if we are dreaming, because we are so grateful to be parents and to have two beautiful baby boys in our lives. We love them so much and we can't get enough of them.