Happy One Month Deklyn!

Well my little boy is one month old today! I thought that deserved a new blog post :)

If I could say anything about this past month, it would be that it has been amazing and much different then I thought it would be! I thought this whole 'situation' was going to be much harder than it has been. It hasn't been easy, in fact some days are very hard. Just the other day we saw a few families going home with there babies and I began to feel very overwhelmed. I was very happy for them, but at the same time felt very sad that that wasn't me. I just have to remind myself daily that things could be so much worse, we are just so blessed to have our son with us! It feels like this last month has just flown by so fast!
Just to show a bit of his progress here is a picture of Deklyn the day he was born...

and here is one of him today..  (Sorry I know its not great for comparison, for month 2 I will start trying to take a picture more similar to the top picture so its easy to see the changes)

 He has grown so much! From what I can tell, and some nurses have said, his ribs have grown! You can see in the first picture his ribs are very caved in just under the nipples, this has improved greatly! Also his skull was very soft when he was born and now it is really quite hard! When comparing his arms in the pictures it almost seems like his arms have shortened since he was born, but its because his chest has expanded and he's also been dealing with some swelling that his arms are up the way they arm. Some people have been asking me if they think his arms will grow, we really can't say for sure because the drug is still experimental. Deklyn is only the 8th baby to receive the drug so they can't say "90% of the time this happens" or anything like that. They say we can assume that his arms and legs will grow, but there are no promises. Of course we know our little guy will be completely healed, but even if his arms and legs don't make a significant improvement the important thing is that what he needs to live, like his chest, grow!

On Deklyn's 4 Week birthday we had a very special surprise! We didn't think that we would get hold Deklyn for quite some time. I was trying to prepare myself that I may not get to hold him till he is about 4 months old. That evening the night nurse informed us that they would be needing to bring in a new bed for Deklyn and that while they move the beds around one of us could hold him! I was sick with a cold at the time so I told Sheridan he could hold him. I also just felt like I got to hold him in me for 9 months and if it was anyones turn it was daddys. I know it wasn't anything like when you get to hold your baby just when they are born, Sheridan had to stay pretty still, and he had to be held on a small mattress (same kinda of mattress that is in the incubator) so its not like you can actually feel him in your arms, like cuddling him. But it was still something! I really didn't think we would get to do that so soon.

We are so blessed by our little guy everyday! We know its only going to get better!