GLORY HALLELUJAH!

For those of you who have been keeping in very close contact with us, you are aware of the great concern little Shad's weight has been.  Those of you unaware, I will fill you in very briefly.  We have been constantly concerned about Shad's  general distaste for food and lack of interest in eating, unfortunately last Friday at his two week check up things got worse.  Over the previous week he actually managed to lose an ounce of weight.  He was then back down to six pounds five ounces the same weight he was when he left the hospital almost two weeks before.  Needless to say, this is precisely what we were afraid of and I was devastated.  The Dr. wanted to send me to a lactation consultant. I kindly informed him that we had already seen one, and five of his colleagues as well and been given different advice by every single one of them.  At this point he informed me all of the advice we had gotten so far was wrong and the lactation consultant would be our fix.  However, the lactation consultant wasn't available over the weekend so he said he would call Monday to figure something out.  This left us to simply manage on our own over the weekend.  I was scared to say the least.  We decided it was time to really start doing everything we could and over the weekend we began supplementing with formula in addition to nursing and supplemental breast milk.  I was at my wits end as far as what else we could do for this little (literally) boy and starting to get frantic.  Fortunately, Dan is much less dramatic and reassured me that we really were doing everything we could.  Sunday Dan and his dad gave Shad a priesthood blessing. It means so much to me that they are both worthy of this great power.  It was pretty amazing to hold him and feel the spirit of God so strongly as they did, and also reassured me that we could handle whatever came next.  Monday we decided rather than wait around to hear back from the Dr.'s office we weren't very impressed with we would schedule an appointment with the Dr.  we planned to use when we move to Saratoga Springs.  We saw him Monday and were pleased to find out our hard work and faith and prayers were making a difference.  Shad gained five ounces over the weekend, but still wasn't back up to his birth weight.  We did some follow-up blood work to be sure the jaundice was cleared up and the Dr.  encouraged us to continue doing what we were and come in today for a weight check.  This is the great news:  HE IS AT SIX POUNDS THIRTEEN OUNCES!!!!!   We finally passed our birth weight and I am so relieved.  We will go in again Monday to make sure that we continue in the same direction, but two weight gains in a row at this point is pretty big news, especially since he is the heaviest he has ever been now.  I realize to many people out there with children with severe disabilities, diseases, illnesses or injuries that this probably seems pretty over the top and I don't mean to make it more dramatic than it is.  However, in my little world it is a pretty big deal and I tend to go to the extreme when it comes to concerns about health so feel free to snicker under your breath.  Just know that as minor as it may be in the grand scheme of things today was a little miracle for me and I am so grateful.