well in Pittsburgh!

Hi, folks!

Everything is going well in Pittsburgh. William is no longer neutropenic (he can now fight off infections on his own), his white blood cell counts are growing, he is tolerating some feeds through his g-tube (he ate a little bit of sweet potatoes yesterday!) and is getting loved on by his Aunties Sara Hoffman andMegan Egerton Hirko! They have been such a huge help being my extra hands for the past 5 days which has allowed me to get more sleep than I have been able to get since William got sick! They have the "mommy touch." 💕 I also haven't laughed this hard in a long long time. 

William still has some neck control (pretty much the same as before we got here 6 weeks ago), kicks his legs some and moves his arms a little. Now that he's not on a continuous pain medication, he is focusing on books and showing interest in colors and sounds.

What needs to happen before we are discharged from hospital:

*William must be able to tolerate bolus feeds through his g-tube (how much a bottle-fed baby would drink in 30-60 minutes every 3-4 hours);

*He must not need a platelet or blood transfusion (he is needing one at least every other day right now);

*He will get another spinal tap to see how much of the donor blood he has versus his own blood (his blood type will change to the donor blood type, eventually);

*He will get one set of his central lines removed, but will be discharged keeping the other set (before we go back to Utah, he will have all central lines removed).

There are several other smaller issues that need to be stable before William leaves the hospital and lives with us in the Ronald McDonald House for a few more months. We are still taking it day by day, sometimes hour by hour for William to show us what he needs. Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers! I love checking the mail everyday for New surprises for William.

XO, The Branches