Happy New Year's Eve!

Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming out poor of love, support and especially the prayers.  They are working!  Ryder continues to do very well, despite a minor set back yesterday and needing to tube feed every other feeding.  The nurses and doctors warned us that he was working at a pace not usually maintainable for someone his age, so he got too tired to continue with all bottle feeding.  He is, however, continuing to increase his intake, so hopefully he will have gained weight since yesterday.  He is at 4 lb 4 oz right now.  All vitals and tests keep coming back with great results.  We are so blessed!  Here are a couple updated pictures.

 Our first family portrait... taken by our great nurse named Lauren!  The NICU nurses have been outstanding.  Each one seems to be an angel that fell from the sky!  I cannot wait to bring him home and come back to do something nice for them.

 Last night after his 9 PM feeding.  You can see the little tube coming from his nose.  It goes directly to his stomach to feed him.  His shirt says, "Great things come in small packages."

Cute picture from 12/29... Auntie Lindsey gave this to him.  It says, "My Auntie is Awesome"... AND SHE IS!  Eric washed it a few weeks ago and asked me if he shrunk it when he was folding it.  Little did we know then that it would swallow our little guy up!

A special thank you to all who came to see Ryder those first few days and everyone who sent wishes via text/calls/flowers.  It brightened his spirits (and ours too).  Currently, we are back and forth between home and the hospital.  We try to only visit with him during eating time, as his sleep is SO important.  We look forward to accepting visitors when we get him home (hopefully by next weekend).  For now, visits are with feedings at 3, 6, 9, 12, if you would like to see him.

We are thankful for the very generous offer some have made to bring us dinner!  We are lucky to live in an amazing neighborhood that organizes support for new moms.  Our mom's club uses a website to coordinate the efforts.  To access our CareCalendar site, please visit http://www.carecalendar.org/logon/60692 and enter the following information in the appropriate spaces:

CALENDAR ID : 60692
SECURITY CODE : 7672

Thank you again to everyone for your love, support, prayers and thoughts.  Eric and I are comforted by it all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts!  Ryder cannot wait to meet you all.  He has proved he is eager, so I mean it when I say that. ;)