April 17

Jesse turned four months old on Sunday, April 13! It is amazing that it has already been 4 months. I (Melanie) went to visit him tonight and spent about 45 minutes with Amy and Jesse. Amy (and Jesse) say hello to everyone in the family! Jesse slept for the first 20 minutes and then was awake and alert for the last 25 minutes. His eyes focus and look around the room. He has a few pictured taped to the top of his bed that he likes to look at. His hair is growing in and looks blondish to me (others have argued that it will be darker). Here are a few pictures of the day!

Jesse is looking right at me!

Jesse is looking at a picture of Cairo!

Jesse has positioning rolls made especially for him by his mom!

Just like the white ones under his legs.

Here is a view from the bottom of Jesse's bed.

April 6, 2008

Last night, I (Melanie) went to see Jesse with Jon and Stephanie. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera. Miraculously, his chyrothorax healed last week and he did not have to go into surgery. But to our great dismay, it started again on Saturday afternoon. Jesse had a wonderful blessing that said that his chyrothorax would be healed. Continue to pray for this little boy. Jesse looked calm and at peace. I wish I had my camera to show everyone. His hair continues to grow a little (there is a debate as to what color it will be). Part of the time, he was sleeping peacefully holding Amy's or my finger. At other times, he opened his eyes and looked around when I was in the room. He continues to amaze me.

March 31, 2008 (My Due Date)

Since I had not been to see Jesse in a week and I got off early today. I (Melanie) decided it was time to visit him. It turned out that it was his due day. Jesse was tired, but kept trying to open his eyes to look around at everyone. I got one where he looked at Richard, but not where he was looking at me. If you look really closely, he is starting to grow hair on his head and grow eyebrows and eyelashes. That is exciting. He was kicking his legs and moving around for all to see. He continues to fight and stay strong. However, he had a rough day with a lot of scans and other tests. He will probably have surgery in the next few days for chyrothorax and some other lung surgery (not sure what it is called, but they take off the top layer of lung tissue to rough it up and glue it to the pleural lining, so that his lungs won't collect the fluid anymore). They said that he lost weight since they gave him medication to reduce the water collecting in his body and lungs. He is now just over two pounds. If you have questions, I may be able to answer them. Continue to pray for this sweet little boy.

As you can see, I have IVs in both arms and legs.

Look how big I am getting!

I see my dad next to my bed!

Big yawn! I am tired.

The nurse just gave me some ativan, so I can have a restful night.

Good night Jesse!