Ok, so Blake has encouraged me to give this blogging thing another try...Why? Because we are NOT interesting. BUT... We just added the most precious, entertaining, adorable, little cutie to our family. We promise you, he does not disappoint with the updates he will provide for you (unlike his boring parents...please forgive the simplicity of this blog-this is foreign to us). Meet God's greatest gift to us. Our son, Charles Hatch Bowen. If you don't know the story behind the name yet, we promise in the near future to fill you in.

As for now, our hearts are literally overflowing with joy as we have been beyond blessed by our AWESOME God with this addition to our family. He "hatched" 6 weeks early which to us means...we get to enjoy him that much more and that even though he may look more like a Bowen-he clearly inherited the early/on time gene from the Mertz side, specifically his great grandpa Mertz, my more than incredible Papa, who we prayed many times for him to be like. Thank you Lord for answering that prayer already ;) We have also been humbled by the outpouring of love via: texts, calls, emails, flowers, food, visits, new preemie clothing for our early arriver, etc., etc. We just can't seem to keep up with everyone and hate that although you all are doing an incredible job of loving us better than well, we are not doing a good job of loving you all back...Thus, Blake's genius idea of restarting the blog so everyone could come here to see daily updates. Here in a nut shell is the latest. -God has him in his hands in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and he is making forward progress everyday. He was born at 4lb 15oz and today's weight is 4lb 9oz--this is typical and expected of even a full term baby. -He was taken off of his bili lights today! Praise the Lord. We clearly have a fighting warrior on our hands here.

-He gets feedings through his nasogastric tube (NG tube) 6 out of his 8 daily feedings. Mom and dad get to give him the other two feedings via a bottle. He is at 28mls each feed and sucked the last two bottles dry! Praise! (this is HUGE because taking every feeding completely by mouth is our ticket out of here). Mom also gets to try and breastfeed him twice a day but they still give him a feeding through his tube after he is done. He latches really well, as a matter of fact, the lactation consultant today's words were "he is picture perfect, he is the type of infant you'd see on video's at breast feeding conferences." All of the doctors and nurses have been quite impressed with our little prince. Can you tell we are ALREADY the proud, bragging parent type!? Other than that we have officially moved in to an empty room at the hospital. They have been gracious enough to give us a room on a day by day basis-if their census goes up and they need the room, we have to pack up and head home. But for the time being we live here so we can go down to the NICU anytime of day to visit our baby. Blake has gone back to work for the time being, he is quite the trooper sleeping here on an air mattress and then heading to work. Already he is the most amazing father, while maintaining his current title of the most amazing husband.

We know the Lord has brought us to this NICU for a reason. We know that Charlie Hatch is in His hands and we do not have to worry about him so we pray we do not miss an opportunity here to love the staff and other NICU family members well while we are here. He clearly has prepared us for this journey with my nursing background, a job at this hospital, knowing some of the dr's here, and having complete confidence and trust in the team taking care of our precious little prince. We are thankful that this is not "scary" to us. Please pray our eyes are peeled to what Christ desires for us to accomplish in our time at the hospital. For rest, endurance, patience, love and of course for the continued improvement-health-growth of our Charlie Hatch. God is great and we feel honored and privileged to live out this journey he has set before us. We thank each of you for partnering with us on this journey, for your love, prayers and support. You truly have no idea how much you bless us. Stay tuned... xoxo, Charles Hatch & Co.