today we ended up leaving the NICU a little earlier than usual so that we could come home and have some time to unwind, and watch some FNL with friends. it was difficult to leave him so early. i feel guilty like i've abandoned him. 

guilt is a common feeling among NICU parents. who wouldn't want to be by their baby's bedside 24 hours a day when every day is so precious? the fact that it's common to feel guilty doesn't make it any easier. what does make it easier is that we have a great nurse, and we know that we can call any time of the day or night to check on his status.

right before we left, the nurse took his blood gas, and it was excellent. they used that to determine that they could turn down his ventilator a little, which they did. when we called in around six o'clock, his gasses came back bad, and they put the ventilator back up to where it was earlier today. the nurse said that it can probably go back down if they draw another good gas, but they'll only turn it down 1 step instead of 2 this time. this is just one of those days where you get great news, feel awesome about the progress that's being made, and then have to take a step back when things turn around a little. i know it's not a major setback, but it's hard to hear things like that.

on another note, we used our oven for the first time tonight. some angel (Kara J., compliments of Toni and Gary) put a frozen pizza in our freezer, and we ate it for dinner before we headed over to Dean & Andrea's for some Friday Night Lights. yay for good friends. and red vines. (thanks Andrea!) we also received a most awesome gift from Dave and Becca...Kindergarten Cop. yes. Kindergarten Cop. i can't wait to be able to watch it.