Im Home....for a minute

Hey everybody just wanted to drop everybody a line. I am currently in the states helping hold our softball team known as the Stanley family together. I was rushing home in the middle of begging for a seat on a C-17 when Dena had Nick at 12:17 a.m. on the 8th of May 2009. I was coming home early because of the kids not having anyone to watch them until school was out, and because of Dena's Gestational Diabetes with the risk of Pre-eclampsia ( I have no idea if I spelled that right). I should be in the states until the 26th of May, but if Nick isn't out of the NICU by then I am going to try and get an extension. Anyways, Nick was born at 4lbs 12 ozs. and he was about 17 inches long. He was born just before 33 weeks, so he is still pretty early. They took him straight to the NICU at the hospital in Nashville, where he has to stay until he is a little bit more developed. He is pretty Janduced so he spends a lot of time under the lamps. He also has a greater risk of sleep apnia, they tell me this is because his central nervous system isn't fully developed yet. They call these events of forgetting to breath momentarily as "spells". He had 13 spells last night, which the doctor and all the nurses say is totally expected of a premi baby at his age. But of course Dena is freaking out about it and putting herself through torture making a bigger deal of it than it really is, but then again she is a mom, and that is what mom's do. Couple that with Dena not getting a lot of sleep because she wakes up every two hours and dutifully pumps milk out for Nick to eat the next day, so she is a little sleep deprived. Needless to say I am glad I made the decision to come home for this whole fiasco. We got to change his diaper and take his temperature today and yesterday. And I got lucky and was able to hold him yesterday. Dena can't wait to get him home, and I will admit I am pretty anxious about it myself, but I know that the doc's won't let him come home until he is totally ready. And it seems that the facilities at Centennial Women's are first rate, so I am relaxed about that.

Other than that everything in Afghanistan is going well, the status is the bad guys still don't like us. And we still don't like them. So they try to blow us up, and we try to blow them up. Helo ops is starting to pick up, and everybody is flying more. I have also requested to go to the instructor pilots course at Fort Rucker after we get back, so if I am excepted I will be training new pilots coming to the company. Well that is about it I am including a lot of pictures for everyone to look at and download. I hope everyone else is doing well and staying safe.


Morgan