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!