Movin on up!

Well, after about 9 days at Children's Hospital Nate has been upgraded to a level 2 hospital and moved back to Unity near our home. Now it's only about a 10 minute drive to be with him so that's great!

Here's a shot of Joe, Nate, and I at his new home in Unity Hospital. The nurses gave Nate that red and white hat...they must have known he has Monroe and Wisconsin roots in him :)

Over the weekend, Nate has been steadily progressing and increasing his breast milk feedings each day. He's handling them pretty well and was still on his IV until Sunday morning. They took him off the IV now so he has one less tube that we have to worry about. Nate has been known as the little troublemaker at his new digs because he has pulled his feeding tube out multiple times. He may only be 3 lbs but he's a scrappy fella. The nurses put his tube in the other day and he had it out in about 2 minutes after flailing his arms and legs. He's now got his tube taped to the side of his face with some pretty heavy duty tape, so I'm sure he won't enjoy it when it comes off, but the kids gotta eat! In the next week or so they are going to try and lay him on me to see if he's interested in trying to eat the natural way. So far he hasn't had much interest but they say that's totally normal since he's only 32 weeks and obviously wouldn't be eating by mouth in utero.

Joe and Nate rockin their hats....we tried to style Nate's hat with a curled lip a little bit so he could resemble his cool Uncle Jonny! The only option they had at Unity was that knit hat or a pink one so Joe opted for the red and white.

We were able to hold Nate Saturday for about 4-5 hours, the longest stretch we've had with him. Unfortunately for friends and family, Unity has a strict no visitor policy...only parents are allowed. Nate is now in a room with about 7 other newborn preemie babies that are in pretty close quarters. Nurses and doctors don't want to increase the risk of spreading germs with these little guys. We feel good about that for keeping Nathan safe but it stinks because he has a lot of people who want to see him. They aren't giving us a time for him to be released of course, but they are thinking he will be at Unity for about a month as long as he continues to progress.



Not a very clear picture but here is Nate with his little hand holding on to my finger.

We keep him swaddled pretty tightly because he flails around so much. The nurses just laugh at him and tell us they don't normally have such an active 3 pounder. I told them he's been fiesty since I could first start feeling him move in my stomach. Both of our ultrasound meetings took a long time because he was moving around so constantly in my stomach and the technicians were having a hard time taking his measurements. The last ultrasound picture we have of him he's got his foot up above his head and the nurse saw him touching his toes! I think we're going to have a lot to deal with here!


Nate playing shy - he's definitely not! He was really active on Sunday. The nurses told us that he spent the early morning wide awake and alert looking all around. We tried to get some pictures of him with his eyes open but he wouldn't cooperate very well. Sunday was definitely a more active day though. It was the first time he really tried to focus looking at either Joe or I for an extended period of time.














Here's one of Nate with his hat off. He had just finished his feeding at this time so he had a full belly. Poopy diaper update......Joe has still not changed one!! Feel free to send him a text or message of encouragement :) Kidding, kidding, he's a wonderful dad who couldn't be better with Nate. Sometimes we have to rock, paper, scissors for who gets to hold him first in the mornings.

The picture below is another one of Nate rockin his hat. We're thinking he's attempting a career at being a hand model or something! He's quite the poser. Joe and I have had conversations recently about how weird the stuff we talk about now is...for example breast pumps, millileter levels, car seat options, hearing tests, brain scans, etc. We tend to laugh at the end of the night at how quick our lives have changed, but we are definitely rolling with it. You will also all be glad to know that my bizarre competiteiveness still lives on. For those of you who don't know....I have a problem. I can turn anything in to a competition! Again, this is too much information but my new obsession is trying to get more and more breast milk each day. I knew today when I filled 2 bottles of breast milk and my nurse told me that was awesome, and I felt such a thrill that I have a problem! Again....sorry for this information but it's the little things in life, huh?! The doctors will be adding a protein type supplement to the milk this week to help Nate try and pack on the weight, so we're still hoping he'll go up about an ounce a day.

Nate also is neighbors at Unity with the baby he was next to at Children's Hospital. We've gotten to know the couple pretty well so they have been a great added support to us since they are obviously going through the same situation. Joe gives Nate and his buddy a lecture every night as we leave that they can't stay up late talking...it's kinda cute. Well, enough for now, I hope you're enjoying the blog!