Yay for visitors!

Good news on the doctor front....Nate now weighs 5 pounds 1 ounce and only has to go to the pediatrician one day next week - on Friday. His doctor is still just checking his weight and length which is going well. On Monday Nate has his follow up eye appointment to make sure his retinas are growing as they should. It'll be his first trip in my Alero-classy classy car.

Nate had some visitors this weekend and got to watch my favorite movie of all time. NEWSIES! Most of my friends make fun of me for loving this movie but it's a classic people - google it if you don't know it. It's about newspaper boys and below is a photo of Nate with one of Joe's old newsie caps while we watch the movie and sing along.







Seize the day Andrew, seize the day :)
















Our friends Molly and Ryan stopped by to say hello the other day and here is Molly feeding him a bottle. Nate got to meet his future prom date Claire who is Molly and Ryan's new little baby girl. Below is a succession of their entertaining interactions.






Claire playing hard to get.....Nate being a typical man and not paying attention to the girl but rather sleeping.





Nate realizing he is laying down flat and not happy about it....Claire still playing coy.











Nate - stunned by Claire's beauty he can't contain himself! Claire, apparently still not phased.













Claire- tired of Nate's silly antics and she finally lets him know about it! Claire is two days younger than Nate and she was born full term. Hopefully Nate can catch up to her before they head to prom!












Grandpa Jimbo and Grandma Jeanne are up to visit with Nate and us for the next few days. Grandma already fed Nate a bottle and Grandpa held Nate for a few hours where Nate was silent. Of course Gramps thinks he now has the magic touch.









Satisfied customer!














Nate after a long day of partying.

We're looking forward to a week with less doctors appointments and more resting and getting settled at home!

New weight class

Well he's a 5 pound prize fighter now!! We saw the doctor this morning and Nate was 5 pounds even.
We go again on Thursday to check his weight and progress...twice a week for those doctor visits but it's worth it to see how he's doing.





Tomorrow we drive down to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis to have a bunch of tests done on Nate's bladder and kidneys to test their functioning. This will be our longest trip in the car but so far Nate is a fan of riding in his car seat and we don't hear a peep out of him.





Thursday is another Nate check up and I also have my 6 week follow up with my doctor to make sure things are going well. We kind of live at the doctors office now but it's nice to make sure things are progressing. Next Monday we drive up to Wyoming Minnesota- Joe's prior town of employment, to see the eye doctor for an update visit. It's about a half hour drive. It's kind of nice to have these doctors appointments as excuses to go out of the house with him!












This might be my favorite picture because I took this after Nate.....projectile pooped on Joe!!!!! YAY! Now, I'm not cruel but we have all been through it now, even Aunt Trisha. Joe decided to wake me up at 1 AM the other morning to help him out because he was a bit frustrated with having been pooped on so aggressively. Even in my delirious state of waking up I was hysterically laughing. I had to get a shot of Nate with the wipes Joe used to clean off the changing table. Not gonna lie, I was secretly proud of Nate for finally getting Joe :) I think he looks a little proud in this picture.

Doctor update

Nate did great at the doctors yesterday. He now weighs 4 pounds 13.5 ounces. We were very glad he put on a few ounces since he had been stuck at 4 pounds 11 ounces at the hospital. It's been awesome having him home and we were glad to know we were doing alright with the feedings. They are the biggest challenge so far but he's caught on to the bottle pretty well. He's now 18 inches long as well and will be having checkups twice a week to check on his weight. His doctor says he looks great!

Free Bird!!!

Nate's Home!!!! Tuesday the doctor gave us the go ahead that we could bring Nate home since the only thing he's now working on is bottling regularly. The doctor said he can do that at home as well as he does there so he let us go! Monday was a pretty full day with a head ultrasound, bath, eye exam, and circumcision all in one day - poor little guy was tuckered out after all of the excitement.



They gave us a recipe to fortify his milk with formula so we've been doing that with his breast milk which will hopefully make him nice and strong and keep growing. He's 4 pounds 11 ounces. He's stayed at that weight for the past 3-4 days which the doctor said is fine with all the tests he's had this week, plus they lessened the amount of calories given to his milk.



His head ultrasound was normal, circumcision went great- Joe had to sit down after he got white in the face - the nurses were afraid he might end up on the ground. Mind you, he didn't go watch the procedure, this was just when it was explained to him!





Nate's eye exam with the eye doctor went well - without using the doctors fancy talk - I will tell you he's getting checked again in two weeks to make sure the retina growth is still progressing nicely which it is for his age of 36 weeks gestational age.





We also have a first check up with his pediatrician on Friday to make sure Nate is maintaining his weight nicely. Then next week, we take Nate back to Children's Hospital for a test to check his kidneys and bladder - after his urinary tract infection the doctors want to make sure everything is working properly and Children's is the best place to go have him checked.




Here's Joe and Nate chilling on the couch the other day.









Aunt Trisha was able to visit with Nate on Wednesday, she was chomping at the bit to get a hold of him and he definitely took to her holding him. He's gotten a bit spoiled by the nurses who loved to hold him throughout the night so that has made the nights a little difficult for us.



Nate and I working on the bottle feeding issue. It's going pretty well for the most part. He's quite the gassy little baby so he tends to holler and scream throughout a feeding. He holds on to burps like nothing else so it can seem like forever to help him get those out, but once he does he goes at that bottle!






This pucker face tends to get made pretty often and it cracks me up. He usually does it after a big stretch. This is where Joe is concerned he's going to have my big lips but I say there is nothing wrong with a boy having some smackers on him!








Here's a shot of my friend Kristi working on burping Nate. I think she barely touched his back at first, but later became confident in giving him some good solid pats to get the burps out. We had a lovely lasagna dinner that she and her husband brought us that night which was awesome.

Below are some photos of a co-ed shower that my sister, and friends Kristi and Mary planned and threw for ua. The theme was battle of the sexes and we played 10 games- half of the games were on the Wii and the other half were some baby games. If you've been reading this blog you know that I'm an insanely competitive person and am happy to report that the ladies won 6-4...take that boys! My prize was a date night out and Joe has to drive home!


Our giant stork balloon decoration that Mary brought...that stork may have brought Nate a bit early :) Not sure what Joe's face is there.









Here is a photo of the boys working on the "Celebrity Baby Name Game"














And here's a shot of the ladies working at the same game.....and winning it of course.
















Joe surrounded by a ton of the generous gifts we received for Nate. This little boy has a lot of great "aunts" and "uncles" out there who are spoiling him royally already.








And of course, the most important shot...............


the scoreboard showing the ladies have won the battle!!! Of course, as usual I was an extremely gracious winner.....maybe not. I guess one of these days I'm going to have to work on my gloating skills so I can teach Nate to be a good sport. I swear I was in high school but now it's the silly games in life I can't help but rub it in, as you can tell from Joe's face :) My family knows this, does Hearts and 31 ring a bell family members? :)

Well, so far so good for Nate being home. We know how completely blessed and lucky we are and are so thankful Nate is with us at the house after only 5 weeks in the hospital. It's bizarre to think I should be pregnant for another month, but I can't imagine him not being here now. Thanks for all the love!

P.S.

By the way, the projectile poop issue continues. Nate got me the other day. I wasn't prepared in any way and neither was my poor sweatshirt. I haven't seen Joe laugh that hard in a while but man he thought that was the best thing ever. I can't wait till the day it happens to him! Why didn't any of you parents out there tell me about this issue, it's horrifying you know.

Chug-a-lug

We can't believe a month has gone by already since the day Nate was born. I guess the corny statement is true, but man time really flies. Nate is currently at 4 pounds, 10 ounces and doing awesome. He's been attempting bottle feeding for about a week now. He struggled the first few days with it. He would do great on it at one feeding and then want nothing to do with it when we tried the next day. Joe figured out after a few days of this that it may be the temperature of the milk he didn't like, so we made sure to do it a bit warmer and so far haven't had any issues. Needless to say, Joe is quite proud of himself for figuring that one out.


Nate gets to try bottle feeding four times a day. Yesterday he finished the full bottle for 3 out of the 4 feedings! The other feeding he finished 32 cc's out of 40 - not bad. He's learning to be a little chugger :) Today he has struggled a little bit more and taken a bit more time to get the bottles finished. He tends to fall asleep with a little less than half of his bottle left but the nurses say he is doing great, especially for just being at 35 weeks gestational age.

Nate also passed his hearing test yesterday so we know that he can hear us. I could have already told you this because of Nate's glances towards his new noisy neighbor. He tends to be in the middle of eating when she starts hollering away. If he's awake, he will fully turn his head towards her, or move his eyes up to try and get a look at her. Joe is convinced he's willing her to "shut it" so he can eat! The nurses get flustered with how fussy she is so we're very lucky that Nate isn't so fussy all of the time. I think it's a good thing that he's learning to deal with people being obnoxious and bad roomates :) It'll help him when he gets home! He isn't too fussy, just when changing a diaper and about 15 minutes before a feeding. Other than that if we swaddle him he seems pretty content. I shouldn't say that because I probably just jinxed it!


This weekend Nate is having an eye exam done.
They do it once the babies get to be about Nate's age. I won't be around for that because they have to hold his eyes open and bug him for a while. Joe and I recently brought in a car seat for Nate to pass his car seat test. They have us bring it in and Nate has to sit in it for an hour and not drop his stats. He'll probably do this next week some time. There are all sorts of these tests that he has to pass before he gets the go-ahead to come home.

We've been working on Nate's room over the past week and have put up quite a bit. We have his crib set up, a dresser in the room, a shelving unit, and we are using my beloved Pac-Man machine as his changing table...yes that's correct, you read that properly. Listen, it works exactly the same way as buying some brand spankin new changing table. Don't worry, we have a nice changing pad and will have it securely in place. I refuse to put my Pac-Man out in the cold, and this way it can be utilized......stop judging me :) We'll cover it with something nice so it won't look like a tacky Pac-Man. By the way, Joe still has his ducks hanging on the wall in Nate's room, so Nate's just going to have to deal with our items still being in there. One of these days when we have a big enough house we'll let Nate have his own room with all of his own stuff, but until then he gets to have our stuff in there!

This last shaky shot is Nate's glance over at his noisy roommate. This isn't too bad of a face compared to some of the ones he makes at her. He had been in the middle of a feeding when she started to holler. He let go of the bottle and turned his little head this way towards her. It cracks me up.
Anyways, he's doing awesome and just needing to keep putting on weight and finishing all of his bottle feedings. No guess on when he'll be able to come home but maybe in the next 2 weeks or so if all continues to go well. Take care!

New......talents?

Well, let's start this blog off with a little T.M.I. - that means Too Much Information - dad, just trying to keep you young with the lingo! Nate has learned a new skill....a skill that he learned when I was at lunch thank goodness. While Nate's favorite nurse Allison was changing his diaper, he decided to "projectile poop" all over her and the floor. He shot his poo outside his crib, enough to need to call the poor janitor back up to clean the floor. This head shot picture of him shows the "caution wet floor" sign behind his head after he showed off his new skill. Everyone has a talent right! I'm sure we could sign him up for some sort of competition, huh?

You can tell his new skill really tuckered him out :)

This is a skill I hope he leaves behind at the hospital. Otherwise I'm thinking we need to put down some plastic protective gear in his bedroom!



Alright, enough with the gross new skills, I'll move on to less icky topics. Nate has been doing awesome in his crib. His temperature is nice and regulated and he's still gaining weight. He lost an ounce or two the first day out of his isolette but the nurse said this is normal because he's had to work a little harder to maintain his temperature on his own. He's now up to 4 pounds 5 ounces today. Some nurses work only every other week and they are shocked by how much he seems to be filling out. It's funny to look at a 4 pound baby and think he looks like a chubby little guy! Joe and I can definitely notice it in his face the most. His cheeks look like they are well on their way to getting filled out enough to pinch!

This is a photo of Nate in his nice new crib. He's rockin his preemie outfit but the nurses said he'll probably wear it once or twice and be too big for it already. For being such a little guy, having a 17 inch long body makes it difficult to fit in some preemie outfits. He's also showing in this picture that he has learned how to suck on a pacifier.















The doctor called us this morning and let us know that Nate's recent urine test came back and showed that the antibiotics worked and have cleared his urinary tract infection. It's nice that he has that IV out of his arm again because it was really really hard to try and put even a onesie on him without hurting that IV, and making him cranky of course. Nate had a bit of an eye infection as well but the drops are really helping with that. The doctor checked the color of his lids and they are no longer red but back to being pink like they should. He has a few more days of those drops and then he should be done with that treatment.



The picture to the left is a shot of Nate continuing to refuse to open his eyes for about the 10th time in a row when we took a picture. He knows when that flash is coming I tell ya. We must have distracted him enough in the shot below to get the eyes open!











The biggest step for Nate now is the bottle feeding. Nate had his first bottle attempt on Wednesday this past week. Let's just say there was a little bit more milk on his bib than there was that made it in his stomach. The nurse said he did awesome though. He takes in 36 cc's and he had about 9 left by the time he was tuckered out. They let them try and feed for a half an hour and whatever he doesn't finish they end up tube feeding him. The nurse said he did really great for his first try. His face was pretty hysterical the entire time. My guess is his inner monologue was something along the lines of, "Why don't you just put it in that tube in my nose that sends the milk straight to my stomach!" He seemed a bit confused and shocked as to why milk was coming out at him.



Here's Nate showing off how he's learning to bottle feed! Each time he seems to get better and better at it so we're very proud of his progress. On Friday night he took in 32 cc's, only needing to be tube fed 4. Plus, he actually swallowed a lot of the milk rather than spitting it up on the bib.. what a champ. Once he starts improving bottle feeding, they will try to have us bottle feed him twice a day, then three times, and keep increasing it until he gets stronger. During the other feeding times he still just gets the milk straight in to his feeding tube to his stomach.

Quick update on myself: Many of you kind folks have been asking how I've been doing medically....much better thank you! I had eclampsia, but the doctors are no longer worried about that and the seizures I had the night Nate was born. My blood pressure is under control and I have follow up appointments in three months to check protein levels in my urine. I recently had them checked and they were slightly elevated but not to the point of concern. My scar has healed great, and that fantastic rash is much better. Thanks for all of the kind concern!

Just a quick update... Nate has upped his weight to a new category. Nate is now wrestling other babies in the NICU at 4 pounds! Today, he is 4 pounds 1 ounce. Just, kidding, the babies aren't really wrestling, but he did up his weight :) His food intake is upped fairly often and he is definitely starting to fill out a bit more. He's also renting some new digs and is in a crib today instead of being in his isolette. They keep his isolette ready for him in case he has a hard time maintaining his temperature. So far he has managed to maintain his temperature around 98.5 which is where it should be. He's wrapped up like a little burrito and loving it.

He's been a bit cranky today with all of the changes and starting to wear clothes regularly. He's been used to being in just his diaper for the past 3 weeks because his isolette has been so warm. He just has so many wires connected to him so it can take forever to try and change him. He's in a onesie and a sleepsack and it took me about 10 minutes to move all of his cords, iv's, and feeding tube to get him in there. He also has some plugged tear ducts which is common for a preemie of his age. It causes him to have some intense eye "boogies" as his nurse calls them. He now has some new drops for those, so needless to say, he was irritable with all this.

The good news is today we are trying to bottle feed him for the first time. He's 3 weeks old today, but technically still 34 weeks gestational. This is about the time he would have started to try the suck/swallow reflex. We are only trying to offer him one bottle a day, and the rest of the time he will still be fed by his feeding tube. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Starbucks please!!!!

Nate has had an eventful week this past week with some ups, and some bumps in the road...exactly what the nurses and doctors told us, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Nate has been steadily progressing this week in his weight. As of today he is 3 pounds 15 ounces, so we're expecting him to hit 4 pounds tomorrow or Wednesday. He has some good #2's so they are very impressed that his insides are working smoothly. Good news....Joe has changed 2 #2 diapers!!! Good job dad :) This picture was the first day Nate was feeling very alert for a good chunk of time. We thought he looked like he belongs in the movie "Elf!"


On Thursday or Friday of last week Nate's oxygen levels started dipping a little bit. He had been on a caffeine drip that was removed on Monday. Apparently this drip is fairly common with preemies to help them with apnea and oxygen levels. Well, near the weekend Nate's numbers started to go down so they decided to put him back on the caffeine drip....who doesn't need a little Starbucks to get ya goin in the mornings?

Once those oxygen numbers started going down they decided to run other tests on him to make sure nothing else was going on. They ran blood tests, cultures, urine tests, and all sorts of others I wouldn't be able to explain properly. Needless to say, after lots of tests and waiting for cultures, Nate has been diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. They told us it's also really common in preemie boys as well. He's on an antibiotic right now to help him fight the infection. We had to wait awhile for the cultures to come back so that was a little anxiety provoking. Especially, when they started talking about other tests they would have to do if the bacteria proved to be more infectious, like a spinal tap, yikes! Thankfully, it's not that severe and the antibiotics seem to be doing the trick. The good news along the way has been that Nate has not shown any signs clinically to be sick. His temperature stays around 98 degrees, he keeps his food down, isn't overly fussy, and is still active and alert....all good signs he's not feeling ill.

Once Nate is done with the antibiotics towards the end of this week they will be doing a test on his kidneys to make sure they are functioning ok and that his tubes inside (that's my medical terminology) are all hooked up well and will not cause him to have urinary tract infections in the future or other issues. The nurse told us they always do these tests after a baby has an infection so it's a normal thing to do. This test should happen on Thursday or Friday this week.

We can't get enough of putting Nate in hats that he might yell at us for later in life. It really does crack us up but I think he can totally pull off the look! Oh, and Nate also had to have the oxygen tubes put back in his nose for a day or two just to get his numbers a little higher but they are steady now so the tube got to come out.

This picture is just to prove that he does have hair on that head! We always cover it up with the hats to make sure he's nice and warm out of his incubator, but there is the hair. In the past week his head circumference went from 10 to 11 1/2. We are trying to get more pictures with his eyes open but they keep his area of the room pretty dark and we don't want to flash the camera at him. He is much more active and alert though than he has been in the first week or so, so that is great. His personality is pretty laid back and he's quite easy to soothe at this point. He still has the feeding tube in his nose that goes in to his stomach, but he's starting to get cranky 20-30 minutes before his feedings so that's a good sign. Over the past 3-4 days Nate has really started to grab on to his pacifier all on his own which is quite impressive considering he would have only been 34 weeks this Wednesday.

I was lucky enough to be able to go home to Monroe on Saturday for a lovely baby shower thrown by my Aunt Donna and cousin Ashley. I just have to say thanks to them and my entire family for the fun day. It was so nice to have one day to be around my nutty nutty family.........and really ladies, you kept the nuttiness rolling for me which made my day. Below is a picture of how everything is "set up" in our home right now! It makes for wonderful before pictures. I can't say thanks enough to everybody for thinking of us, getting us gifts, sending cards, and all of the prayers. Thank you to our friends, and family friends who dropped gifts off as well. I was definitely overwhelmed and surprised by it all this weekend and so thankful. Can't wait to post pictures once we have everything settled in a bit more and not just in giant piles in our living room and garage but actually set up in Nate's room! Thanks again to everybody just for thinking of us and it was great to see some of you this past weekend!