Amare in our arms!

Today was a great day for Amare. He is now 100% off of the sedation medication and is now 100% off of the respirator! The goal tonight is to wean him from the blood pressure medication and hopefully by tomorrow morning he will be totally off all of those medications. The final step in his journey to full health is to work on feeding. They will start that tomorrow and use a tiny bit of breast milk through his tube directly into his stomach--they will watch him carefully to see how his stomach handles digestion. Up until now, he has gotten all of his "food" through IV's directly into his bloodstream so that his stomach didn't have to work at all and he could focus all of his attention on fixing his lungs. Now we'll confirm that his stomach can handle the food and will work on getting him up to speed via the bottle and breast. I really think he will come home this week!
The best part of today was when they told us he was doing well enough to come off the respirator and that we could hold him. It was very emotional for both of us--this was the first time we held or really touched him since he was born on Tuesday. He still had a few small tubes but what a great feeling to finally hold your baby in your arms after this long ordeal! Dad held him first--his first time being really held by a person since they took him to the NICU on Tuesday. I held him for about 20 minutes and loved every minute of it. This was one of the big steps we have been waiting for. The next big step is feeding and the biggest step is coming home.