Home at last - Home at last. What a great feeling! We all got home Saturday, but went into morning over Auburn's loss to Arkansas. As you have seen, Claire insisted on honoring her boyfriend (sorry Scott Spann, she doesn't listen to her parents much when it comes to Eliot) by dressing up as a razorback fan (we can only assume she is getting ready for Halloween).

It has been wonderful being home, even the every three hour feedings are not bad (yet). Claire has moved up to getting 24ml of food every three hours (through her NG tube), and is almost maintaining her own body heat. Tammy is just now getting use to the feeding ordeal. We work great as a team, she changes the diaper and takes her temp, while I am checking her stomach contents and putting her food through the tube. We keep her in an isolet (incubator) when we are not holding her, and take her temperature about every other hour, she is rarely below 97'. The Hospice nurse come by today, she took all her vitals and weighed her and said everything looked good. She now weighs a hugh 3lbs 4oz. The physicians still only think she can live for 6-8 weeks, although many trisomy-18 babies make it longer. If you have looked at the trisomy-18 link on this site (or any other), you would see T18 is ALWAYS fatal, affects every cell of the body, and each child is affected differently.
Claire hardly ever cries (it is actually funny that one of the few times she has cried, was for her razorback picture). When she does, you barely hear her. It is a very weak, soft cry, it almost sounds like a small kitten. Most of the time she sleeps. We know she can see light, as she responds to camera flashes, however, it is starting to appear that she may never actually see us. It seems she may never have the ability to hold her eyes or focus them. She often cannot keep her eyes from rolling up into the top of her head, where you can only see the whites of her eyes (it does not look good). She still can not take a baby bottle either, we keep hoping and praying that will change, so pray with us on that.

I have got to tell you, Claire is not even 1 week old yet, and she has affected more people in a positive way, than Tammy or I have done in our lifetime combined. GOD is truly glorious and works in ways that many times we do not understand. But I am here to tell you, from her Parents point of view, we see GOD'S action, and even "think" we understand it. Claire is a true BLESSING and we are so thankful to see what she has already done.