happy tears

Charlie continues to amaze us with his will to eat and improve. He took 85 cc's from the bottle this morning and a little more than that later this afternoon. His breast feeding attempts are improving every time as well! Please keep in mind that a week ago I spent the day in tears because he refused to breastfeed and just over a week ago we were forcing him to take 5-10 cc's from the bottle.

When we started this NICU rollercoaster, Vince used to say to me in the car on the way home, "Laugh on the good days and cry on the bad." And that is what we did. We can see the end in sight now and as much as we don't want to admit that we ever believed otherwise, we finally feel like we have made it and beat this thing. 

We left a little early tonight and decided to tackle the mess that the nursery has become since we will have to be able to use it sometime soon. Between thinking back on putting the nursery together when we were still expecting and reflecting on all the points we have been at in the past year and flipping through the piles of cards from people congratulating us, wishing us well, and urging us to keep the faith - - it was all a little overwhelming and there were some tears shed tonight. But they were happy tears. It is unbelievable to think about how far we have come; how far Charlie has come! We have come in contact with so many amazing people and experienced things we never could have imagined. But we did it and it is such a surreal feeling to be at this point now and know that one chapter is almost over and another will be just beginning.