catching some rays

today was a much better day than yesterday. thank God!! we really needed that and He delivered. today i had a chance to take my dad into the NICU to see gavin and then tracee's sister aimee was able to come by and see him as well. about that time they placed him under a special light to help give him some color back as he has started to become a bit jaundiced. so gavin is catching some rays for the next couple of days under the light. he continues to stay sedated so he remains quiet and content and they can treat him the way they need to without him being too upset. they started a round of antibiotics on him today too as a precautionary measure. my brother josh stopped by this evening and we all went in as that was my first time to see him under the light. he has a cool little pair of "sunglasses" on to keep the light out of his eyes. he is adorable! tracee and i just keep admiring him and saying how beautiful he is. we thought his hair was much darker than it is, but under the light you can really tell that it's a bit lighter. today was exciting for us as they were able to ween gavin off of dopamine (used to help raise his blood pressure)and then he can begin his feedings. they have placed a tube down to his stomach to slowly see how that will go. please pray that he will tolerate this as his little gut is so immature. he is going to get a whopping 1mL every 6 hours of breast milk!
tracee is getting back to normal as she was able to get her IV out today and she is starting to walk around which is awesome. she was able to take a shower a bit ago and i know that makes her feel better. it was special for tracee to get to spend some time in the NICU with gavin all by herself today. she was over there for about 45 minutes with him - so glad she could have some mommy/son time :-) we have been told time and again that this process will be 1 step forward and 2 steps back. i think we are starting to get an understanding of that but we continue to pray and have you pray for more steps forwards than backwards. God doesn't make mistakes and He knew exactly what He was doing in gavin's timeline. we have to continually remind ourselves of that. please pray for the NICU dr's and nurses as they pour into our little one.
thank you to those who have helped with meals, it is so nice to have food brought in and just one less thing to think about. we are still asking that visitors hold off from visiting for another day as tracee tries to get the rest she needs and me too! i have slept very little of late and need to be refreshed for both tracee and gavin. "in the day of trouble i will call to You, for You will answer me. for You are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God." Psalm 86:7,10
go suns!!

jeramy