First Week

The first week of Peter being home has past. I am getting used to having a baby again. Not used to waking up in the night. I have it pretty good though because they had him on a three hour schedule in the NICU, so he seems to stick pretty closely with that. Last Tuesday at the Pediatrician's office he weighed a whopping 4 lbs 2 oz, and he has another appointment tomorrow so we will see how big he has gotten over the last week. I think he seems bigger, but I might just be getting used to how small he is.
There is a lot of help at home. Emma and Jake absolutely love to hold and feed Peter. He is small enough and light enough that they actually do a pretty good job at holding him. We had to have few chats about how Mom needs to say it is okay to hold him and then they can't carry him around. Emma was holding him and I went to turn over laundry and came back to her standing there rocking him. It was nerve racking but she knows the rules now. Not that that always matters, but I think we laid down the law pretty well. I just hadn't thought she would even think she could stand up with him. Oh well, luckily everyone is in one piece and we live and learn.
The noise and confusion of the house is sometimes hard on little Peter, but I think he will learn to tolerate and even like the chaos. He still isn't big enough to cry really loud, but I know that before long he will be a grand addition to the chaos.

HE'S HOME!

Ahhhh! Life is changing so fast for us right now, I don't even have time to keep everyone updated on what is going on!

Peter was sent home on Sunday, June 17th. We had a heads up that he would probably be coming home sometime this week, but we were very surprised it was so soon. We got a phone call on Saturday that we needed to bring his carseat up and stay the night because they were releasing Peter the next day. We ran around and tried to get things set up to bring him home then went to the hospital. He was sent home on oxygen, so we kept him in a hospital room that night with us so we could make sure we knew how to use the oxygen equipment. Then Sunday morning our little 4 lb baby boy came home. Life has been crazy since then, but we are and will adjust.

It has been a while since I posted anything. That is just how life is right now. Well, to be honest with you it is just that I would rather spend an extra five minutes holding my new baby boy than write on the blog. It seems like every time I hold him lately he just gets cozy and goes to sleep. Then when I have to leave and I put him back in his isolette he wakes up and looks at me with great big eyes. Its like he's asking me not to leave him. I hate it and love it at the same time. I guess only a mother knows that feeling.

As for how he is doing, he is almost 3 1/2 lbs! Yes, that's right... 3 lbs 7 1/2 ounces. They have four phases in the feeding protocol that he has to pass to come home. He has passed the first phase and is working on the second. He has to take his feedings from a bottle at least four times a day, and take at least 75% of the recommended amount, and still gain weight. Then if he can do all that for 48 hours he can move on to phase 3. He is doing pretty well, but it takes a lot of energy for him to take a bottle. He gets very tuckered out. He is still on some oxygen and we have no idea when he will be able to ween off that. They are starting to ween him from the isolette. So he is in clothes now and usually wrapped in a blanket. He is still gaining some weight but I think the bottle feedings and the extra energy he is using to keep himself warm has made his weight gain slow a little lately. Overall though he is doing great.

We all went to see Peter today and the kids were so excited. They tried to do stuff like play peek-a-boo with him, it was so cute. He basically slept through the visit, but the kids didn't mind. They keep asking when he is coming home. I would love to get an answer to that question too.

Nate has made a lot of progress on the playhouse that he is building in our backyard. It is looking really good, so I have to show it off a little bit. We picked out some paint, but I will wait and let you see some pictures of the finished product. I think it will be so fun for the kids. Right now there is at least a sandbox underneath it for them to play in.