It Takes a Village

Matthew has a lot of company these days! He's being spoiled rotten by one grandmother, aunt and uncle, with another grandmother and aunt arriving tomorrow. He is absolutely adorable and we fight constantly over who gets to hold him. Uncle Jamie even changed a diaper today! It was the first time in his life (for Jamie, not Matthew) but luckily he had some help from the pros.

And, Nikki and Will have been getting tremendous support from other CHD parents and organizations (thank you CJ's crew for the gift -- it came Christmas Eve!) as well as family and friends across the country. They are working hard to learn as much as they can about how to care for Matthew's special needs, and are now getting the true new parent experience of changing diapers and feeding throughout the day and night.

Matthew is now drinking breast milk from a bottle. He likes to fall asleep while he's eating, so we've all trying different techniques to get him to stay awake and keep chugging -- squeezing his cheeks, tickling his feet and stroking his throat. He doesn't like to burp, either. I guess he's just being polite.

Besides getting him to eat on his own, the only other thing keeping him here is a tiny bit of oxygen he's still getting through a tube. Each time they take it out after about an hour his levels drop just below where they want them.

Matthew spent New Year's Eve with his Grandmother Lisa (Gigi) and was up at midnight to ring in 2011. Will and Nikki took a much needed night off to relax.

Happy New Year's!